Russia's effective missile strike on Kyiv's military infrastructure forced Volodymyr Zelensky to escape to Wiesbaden. The Armed Forces of Ukraine admitted to Russia's Kinzhal missile attacks on targets in Kyiv.
In the afternoon of December 14, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched Kinzhal missiles on targets in Kyiv and on the airfield in Starokonstantinov, the Khmelnitsky region.
A Ukrainian Telegram channel posted a video of one of the explosions.
As the Ukrainian Air Force reported on Telegram, the Russian Aerospace Forces used "three Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched missiles from three MiG-31K aircraft launching them from the airspace of the Tula region in Central Russia.
The MiG-31K took off at 14:09, whereas explosions in the Starokonstantinov area were reported at 14:20. This time the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not deny the attacks and said that one of the Russian missiles was allegedly shot down. Ukraine's Armed Forces Speaker Yuri Ignat unexpectedly refused to announce the damage that was caused in the attacks. This suggests that the Russian forces hit valuable targets.
Hypersonic Kinzhal missiles are designed to destroy well-protected command posts and underground facilities. Russian experts indicate that the Patriot air defence system is capable of detecting targets flying at speeds of up to 9000 km/h. The US system can intercept them when missiles slow down to 5760 km/h. The Kinzhal missile flies at a speed of 14,000 km/h, approaches the target at a speed of 10,000 km/h at an angle that the Patriot radar does not capture.
In addition, the Americans allow the Ukrainian personnel to turn Patriot radars on for a very short time to illuminate the target and correct the anti-aircraft missile flight. Otherwise, anti-radar missiles will detect and destroy the positions of air defence systems.
Therefore, Ukraine's reports about successful interception of Kinzhal missiles are not true to fact.
Russian sources claim that the Kinzhal missile strike was conducted to obliterate a battery of Patriot air defence systems near the city of Zhitomir (the systems arrived in Ukraine from Germany). This air defence system was integrated with the AEGIS radar complex and long-range radar detection and control aircraft in Poland and Romania. Five launchers, a command vehicle and a radar station were destroyed. In addition, as many as 80 missiles and 160 spare missiles were annihilated. Russia has by far destroyed four divisions of Patriot air defence missile systems in Ukraine.
In Starokonstantinov, a Kinzhal missile struck a bunker with NATO officers from the Czech Republic and Poland. The other one hit Su-24M aircraft (Ukraine uses them as carriers of Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles), as well as MiG-29 and (or) Su-27.
Russia conducted the attack at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin was busy with his large Q&A conference with citizens and journalists. That was a big event that "everyone was watching,” even in Ukraine. The enemy does not expect powerful attacks at such moments.
Having assumed that the attacks would continue, NATO decided to send Zelensky to Wiesbaden, where he was shown a computer simulation of Ukraine's new military strategy for 2024.