Russian hypersonic missiles wreak havoc on Kyiv children's hospital

Russia once again attacked Ukrainian cities with hypersonic and cruise missiles. One of the targets was Kyiv, where the children's hospital suffered damage. We explain what weapons the Russians might have used to strike the capital of Ukraine and why defenders still struggle with this type of weapon.

On July 8, 2024, among other locations, Russian missiles hit Kyiv. According to the Unian agency, citing a well-known military blogger, the Russians used dozens of missiles, including Kalibr cruise missiles and hypersonic Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles.

The second type is particularly dangerous, as Ukraine currently has only a few batteries of anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems capable of intercepting such targets. Even if a successful interception occurs, the missile debris, weighing up to a few hundred pounds, must fall somewhere, causing destruction. At least five people were killed in the Russian attack.

Ukrainian air defense is currently much weaker than it was in 2022 or even in 2023, as local stocks of missiles for post-Soviet systems have been depleted. Replenishing them is practically impossible, as missiles for many systems were produced exclusively by Russia, and their availability in the West is very limited.

The worst situation is with the medium-range S-300P and S-300V systems, for which Bulgaria provided only Slovakia, along with one S-300P battery and a certain number of missiles for repair. This, however, is not enough, and the donation of several batteries of the Patriot and SAMP/T systems by Western countries has not filled the capacity gap.

It is also worth noting that Ukraine received a lot of old equipment, such as the S-200 Vega from Poland, and the MIM-23 Hawk from the US and Spain, but their performance does not measure up to combating newer ballistic missiles. This leaves Ukraine's critical infrastructure, such as power plants, defenseless, as was evident in the attack on the Trypil TPP power plant near Kyiv.

Ballistic missiles like the Iskander-M travel along a ballistic trajectory, ascending to the upper atmosphere and then descending at speeds exceeding Mach 7 (over 6,500 ft/s). Such high speed significantly complicates their interception, and only a few anti-aircraft systems in the world are capable of dealing with them.

Their quasi-evolution are hypersonic missiles, which achieve the speed of ballistic missiles while retaining the ability to maneuver during flight. This is a drastic difference compared to ballistic missiles, whose flight trajectory is predictable. The ability of a hypersonic missile to maneuver significantly reduces the chances of it being hit by conventional anti-ballistic defense systems.

Many countries are trying to develop this type of weapon, and one of them is Russia, whose Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles seem to perform significantly below expectations. Meanwhile, the subsonic Kalibr cruise missiles used in the attack served as decoys to divert the attention of Ukrainian air defense from the more significant threat.