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Ukraine's 'Kipish' machine gun wins battle against Russian missile

2022-12-17T11:14:09.941Z


The members of a military checkpoint deployed around a power station that supplies the capital of Ukraine tell how with the few means at their disposal they shot down one of the Kremlin projectiles


'Kipish' holds a missile fin this Friday along with several of his companions in front of the machine gun he used.Luis de Vega

After almost 10 months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the people need to feed their resistance of little heroes.

He clings to them to continue to keep his morale high.

There is a military checkpoint on a road that leads to the outskirts of kyiv where a young man in uniform is the center of attention of the rest of his colleagues.

At 25,

Kipish

, a Ukrainian nickname that means restless, proudly poses for the camera while he holds one of the fins of the missile that he claims—everyone claims—to have shot down with a submachine gun.

This is one of the 76 that Russia launched on Friday morning, according to the kyiv authorities, who claimed to have shot down 60. It has been one of the fiercest massive bombardments against different regions of Ukraine and this group of soldiers from the capital He considers that he has reasons to puff out his chest.

Kipish

's colleagues in arms

surround him so that the group snapshot lives on for posterity.

Along with them, as an essential part of the scene, the machine gun with which they claim to have achieved the feat.

It was after nine in the morning when the first missile was heard, says Evgeni, 50, one of the people in charge of the post.

With the alerts activated, the group's commanders then ordered to occupy defense positions.

But apart from their rifles, they do not have armored vehicles or heavy weapons.

That 7.62-millimeter machine gun is the best defense.

It is supported in the middle of the snow on a rectangular wooden board supported on some tubes.

All very homemade, which makes the story even more surprising.

Kipish

was born in Kiev and his military experience comes down to these months of Russian occupation.

He voluntarily enlisted in the Territorial Defense Corps and, once it joined the Army, he continues to be deployed in the capital.

He tells with a certain tone of normality that it was his superiors who gave the order to pull the trigger when they felt a second missile in the sky.

"I started shooting with tracer bullets and, after two seconds, it fell," he comments without fuss or hint of epic.

When asked if he felt anything, he answers "fear" because he thought he was going to explode and the distance was not very far.

But they did not hear any explosion.

"We are alive," he clarifies, emphasizing the obvious.

Vira, 39 (on the right), next to the remains of the missile shot down this Friday in Kiev.Luis de Vega

It was then that some approached the place where the remains landed.

A couple of hours later, a group of bomb squads swarms around the missile, which lies split in two among some bushes in a snowy field a few meters from the road that leads to the power plant, which rises about 300 meters beyond.

A 39-year-old soldier named Vira, which means faith in Ukrainian, as she herself emphasizes, squats next to the wreckage and points to what she understands to be the numbering erased from the fuselage to make it difficult to trace the weapon.

Despite the proximity of the plant, the mist and sleet barely allow you to see the red and white chimney smoking.

kipish

and the rest of the military are on duty at a point that is located next to the populous neighborhood of Troieshchina, on the left bank of that giant with half-frozen skin that is these days the Dnieper River.

Everything points to the fact that the target of that missile was energy facilities.

But is it possible to shoot down a cruise missile with that machine gun?

The uniformed men themselves do not hide that it has been a small miracle.

In fact, unlike other occasions, they feel a certain need to accompany their story with evidence and take the reporters to the point where the missile fell.

"That happens once in a million," he says at first when asked about what happened Jesús Manuel Pérez Triana, a Spanish analyst specializing in military affairs.

But when he sees the photos of how the missile has been left, with hardly any destruction, he does not see the feat reported by the military as so far-fetched.

He believes that the impact of that 7.62mm round can leave "a hole the size of a finger."

It is not, therefore, necessary to cause major damage.

Furthermore, he adds that these missiles “fly low and relatively slow.

Russia “still has enough missiles for several attacks of this caliber.

We have enough determination and self-confidence to hit back," President Volodimir Zelensky warned late Friday.

The president congratulated his troops, especially "the fighters of the 96th anti-aircraft missile brigade, which protect the kyiv region and were especially effective."

The young soldier who is the protagonist of this story does not consider himself someone special.

“My family gives me strength to fight”, he comments, referring to his mother, his brothers and his sisters.

Kipish

has a girlfriend, but no children, although he admits that he hasn't been able to tell her anything yet.

“The best reward is that this is all over,” he says.

Evgeni, the boss, takes the floor to highlight his way of shooting and how skillful he is behind the wheel.

"A hero," he concludes.

In the surroundings of the power plant, the military admit that they are more overflowing with morale than with weapons and ammunition.

Most received the Russian invasion inexperienced.

This is the case of Basil, 22, originally from Avdiivka, in the eastern region of Donetsk.

There he played in the youth team of the local soccer team, Shakhtar, before settling in kyiv to work as a laborer.

Next to him, a more veteran who, although he had served in the military, before the war was a train driver.

Both approach surprised to see and feel that kind of Goliath that is the missile.

Basil gives his cell phone to the reporter so that he can take a souvenir photo of him on the spot.

Gera, one of the leaders of the group, appreciates all the help that his country is receiving from abroad and assures that they never let their guard down because the danger is permanent.

Proof of this, he implies, is that the bombing on Friday morning did not catch them off guard.

But he does not tire of repeating over and over again that they need more weapons, since they would achieve much more than that victory obtained with the machine gun that

Kipish

fired .

"Weapons... and tobacco," he adds with a smile.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-17

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