Ukraine: The Russians thought they had destroyed the S-300 system, but it was two or three Patriot arrays

Two American Patriot systems were among the equipment of Ukrainian forces destroyed by a Russian Iskander missile strike in the Donetsk People's Republic (annexed by referendum amid the war in Russia), a security source told Sputnik on Saturday.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced the Iskander raid earlier today. Initial evidence indicated that the strike destroyed the S-300 missile system of Ukrainian forces near the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. Sputnik later obtained material indicating that three missile systems were destroyed in the Iskander raid.

“An examination analysis found that in the recorded video it was not only the S-300 system, as previously mentioned, but two of the three vehicles that were destroyed.” [από το χτύπημα] “It was Patriot missile systems,” the source said. Without knowing the sources of Sputnik, different sources explain the same thing.

Iskander missiles are used for many different purposes

The Iskander Tactical Missile System is a high-precision weapon with a range of up to 500 kilometers. A missile warhead can destroy almost any target: enemy command centers, equipment columns or air defenses. At the same time, Ukrainians do not hope for long-term Taurus.

Iskander can be armed with ballistic and cruise missiles, which create false electronic jamming as they approach the target and become almost impossible to intercept by air defense systems. Cruise missiles can fly at very low altitudes and under certain conditions are “hidden” by the terrain.

The United States sent Raytheon air defense systems to Ukraine last spring, but they encountered difficulties intercepting Russian missiles and were themselves targeted.

Ukrainian air defenses did not intercept the Iskander missiles

In January, an advisor to the Aviation Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces admitted that Ukrainian air defenses had never been able to intercept a single one of the approximately 300 Kh-22 series missiles that Russian warplanes had fired at Ukraine since 2022.

In May 2023, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its forces destroyed a Patriot missile stationed in Kiev with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced a successful strike with another Patriot missile two weeks later.

In April 2022, Russia sent a diplomatic note to all NATO countries on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any shipment containing weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russian strikes.