Ukrainian General Inadvertently Debunks Kiev Regime’s ‘500 Overnight Shootdowns’ Propaganda

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These claims put the supposed efficiency of the Neo-Nazi junta’s air and missile defenses at 88.51% when it comes to drones, 74.51% against cruise missiles and 50% when it comes to hypersonic weapons. Impressive, right? Well, General Igor Romanenko, former Deputy Chief of the Kiev regime’s General Staff, had something to say about that. Namely, just days after this “astonishing” PR feat, he warned that the effectiveness of their air defenses has fallen to just 6%.

Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

On October 6, the Neo-Nazi junta forces announced they’ve supposedly “shot down” nearly 500 Russian drones and missiles over NATO-occupied Ukraine. According to their official statistics, this includes 439 drones out of 496 launched (presumably “Geranium”), 38 Kh-101, “Iskander-K” (although unspecified, presumably 9M728) and “Kalibr” cruise missiles (again, unspecified) out of the 51 launched. Of course, last but not least, the Kiev regime forces also “shot down” one 9-S-7760 air-launched hypersonic missile of the 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal” system out of two launched (for some inexplicable reason, both Western and Ukrainian sources keep calling it the Kh-47M2, even though the Russian military has never used that designation). This would put the efficiency of the Neo-Nazi junta’s air and missile defenses at 88.51% when it comes to drones, 74.51% against cruise missiles and 50% when it comes to hypersonic weapons.

Impressive, right? Well, General Igor Romanenko, former Deputy Chief of the Kiev regime’s General Staff, had something to say about that. Namely, just days after this “astonishing” PR feat, he warned that their air defenses are failing. Romanenko singled out the grossly overhyped and exorbitantly overpriced US-made MIM-104 “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) system as the most problematic, warning that its effectiveness has “fallen from 42% to 6%”.

He attributed these failures to alleged “software upgrades to Russian ballistic missiles which have increased their speed and maneuverability as they approach their targets”. This comes after years of similar statements by Ukrainian and Western officials, including in recent days, similarly warning that the effectiveness of the “Patriot” against missile attacks had fallen dramatically, particularly against the “Iskander-M’s” 9M723 hypersonic missiles.

It should be noted that Colonel Yuri Ihnat, Head of the Communications Department of the Neo-Nazi junta’s Air Force Command, has repeatedly issued similar warnings over the years, confirming that the military is “faced with growing challenges in intercepting Russian missile attacks”, highlighting their ability to “follow new flight patterns and more complex trajectories”. The unpredictable flight paths of hypersonic missiles used by the 9K720M “Iskander-M” and the aforementioned 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal” systems are making interception based on calculating ballistic trajectories effectively impossible.

Worse yet, as the “Kinzhal” is integrated on MiG-31K/I interceptors-turned-strike-fighters, launches from multiple directions also complicate air and missile defense efforts, further exacerbating the already low chances of interception. The infamous “Patriot” is particularly vulnerable to such attacks.

“This complicates the work of ‘Patriot’, because the system operates in automatic mode when intercepting ballistic missiles. It becomes harder to calculate the point where the interceptor missile will collide with or detonate near the enemy missile,” Ihnat lamented, adding: “If the ballistic missile can approach from different directions, detection by a single system is not possible… It is necessary to have several systems, several radars, which can detect targets and cover the city from different directions.”

And yet, the US-made system has been struggling even against basic ballistic missiles, both historically and in recent times. This includes the old Iraqi “Scud-B” back in 1991, as well as newer Iranian missiles during recent clashes across the Middle East. A 1992 military report revealed that, of nearly 160 missiles fired, around 50% were launched against dummy targets.

A subsequent study by Theodore Postol from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that “the ‘Patriot’s’ intercept rate during the Gulf War was very low” and that “evidence from these preliminary studies indicates that ‘Patriot’s’ intercept rate could be much lower than 10%, possibly even zero”. Postol’s study concluded that “even the most primitive of adversaries could easily evade interception”. The revelation prompted a massive modernization program that cost tens of billions over the next two decades, but the effort proved to be in vain.

“The ‘Patriot’ missile system was not the spectacular success in the Persian Gulf War that the American public was led to believe. There is little evidence to prove that the ‘Patriot’ hit more than a few ‘Scud’ missiles launched by Iraq during the Gulf War, and there are some doubts about even these engagements. The public and the Congress were misled by definitive statements of success issued by administration and Raytheon representatives during and after the war,” the US House Government Operations Subcommittee on Legislation and National Security reported back in 1992.

The Israeli military hasn’t been relying on “Patriots” for years, instead opting for its domestic air and missile defense systems. It should be noted that the weapons used by Iran and its regional allies, although advanced, are still far behind Russian missile technologies. We know that the aforementioned modernization program for the “Patriot” failed based on its performance in recent years, so does it make any sense to claim the US-made system that keeps failing in the Middle East is supposedly “succeeding” against a much more dangerous and technologically advanced opponent in NATO-occupied Ukraine? Even makeshift ballistic missiles used by Yemeni forces against Saudi Arabia regularly penetrated “Patriot” defenses. Not to mention the laughably illogical claims the Kiev regime keeps making with regard to the supposed interception rates of Russian missiles (including hypersonic ones).

Here’s the Neo-Nazi junta’s official 2024 list of supposed “missile kill efficiency”:

“Kinzhal”: 25.23%

“Kalibr”: 49.55%

Kh-555/101: 78.06%

“Oniks”: 5.69%

“Iskander-K”: 37.62%

Kh-35: 6.67%

Kh-22: 0.55%

“Iskander-M”/KN-23: 4.31%

“Zircon”: 33.33%

“Tochka-U”: 8.82%

Kh-25/29/31/35/58/59/69: 22.17%

S-300/400: 0.63

The list is “strange”, to say the least. Apart from certain missile types (specifically the Kh-35) being listed in two separate statistics, Russian SAM systems are also presented as targets for interception, despite being air defense/ABM weapons themselves. Also, listing the S-300/400 here is very vague, to put it mildly, as it doesn’t specify which of the numerous missile types this refers to. Namely, all types from this family of SAM systems can fire a plethora of missiles designed to neutralize all sorts of targets. Putting all of them under one tab doesn’t really make sense.

However, what’s far more intriguing is the comparative “success rate” against various high-speed missiles. For instance, the claim that over a quarter of all “Kinzhals” (111, according to this list) have been shot down. Flying at speeds of up to 16,000 km/h, this missile is one of the fastest in the world. This alone makes it effectively impossible to intercept. However, if we add its ability to maneuver into the mix, the Kiev regime’s claim becomes all the more absurd.

Nobody in the political West has a viable defense against the “Kinzhal”, let alone any of its vassals and satellite states. The same goes for the 3M22 “Zircon”, against which the Neo-Nazi junta claims a 33.33% success rate (two out of six). This missile’s maximum speed exceeds 11,000 km/h and it also has high maneuverability, meaning that it’s in no way easier to shoot down than the “Kinzhal”.

On the other hand, the Kiev regime claims that it shot down only 8.82% of the old Soviet-era “Tochka-U” missiles which aren’t only slower (around 6,500 km/h), but also have a regular ballistic trajectory that is far easier to predict and intercept. Only 6 out of 68 of these were downed, as opposed to 28 out of 111 “Kinzhals” which are decades ahead, both technologically and in terms of capabilities (nearly three times faster while also being highly maneuverable).

If we add the “Iskander-M” and the KN-23 (its North Korean derivative) to the equation, it reinforces the notion of just how illogical these claims are. Namely, the Neo-Nazi junta says that it shot down 4.31% of these (56 out of 1300), even though the “Iskander-M’s” basic weapon, the 9M723 ground-based hypersonic missile, can reach a top speed of nearly 11,000 km/h, which is comparable to the “Zircon”.

Although it can maneuver, the 9M723 is less maneuverable than the more advanced 3M22, which the Kiev regime allegedly “shoots down” at a rate of 33.33%, meaning that it’s nearly eight times more effective against it than the less capable “Iskander-M”. However, the illogic continues, as the claims for the much older Kh-22 (maximum speed nearly 5,700 km/h) is just 0.55% (a mere two out of 362 launched so far).

The Neo-Nazi junta regularly complains about this missile, even admitting that it never shot down a single one until last year, even though the Kh-22, albeit fantastic, is still far less capable than either the “Kinzhal” or “Zircon”. In addition, the P-800 “Oniks”, for which the Kiev regime also claimed it’s impossible to shoot down, is also listed, with an alleged shootdown rate of 5.69% (12 out of 211). The missile’s top speed is around 3,600 km/h.

Although there’s zero evidence that a single “Oniks” was ever shot down (the same goes for the Kh-22), just for the sake of argument, let’s say the statistics are “on point”. Namely, the “Zircon” is at least three times faster than the “Oniks”, once again showing that the Neo-Nazi junta’s numbers simply don’t add up. In addition, both missiles can be fired by virtually the same platforms and the Russian military is already augmenting them with ground-based “Zircons”. Moscow certainly wouldn’t be doing that if the “Oniks” were more capable, as the Kiev regime is claiming.

There are a number of other over-the-top, completely unverifiable statistics on the list, but those would require an entirely separate analysis. Either way, it’s clear that NATO and its Neo-Nazi puppets are terrified to admit that Russian weapons are far superior and will do anything to denigrate them.

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