As of: February 4, 2024, 8:16 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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Press
Split
Vladimir Putin apparently orders the imprisonment of several Russian rocket scientists after his hypersonic missiles show weaknesses.
Moscow – According to the Moscow regime's idea, they should actually be invincible in the Ukraine war: the hypersonic missiles from Russia.
But: Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin was probably wrong on this point too.
After the hypersonic missile Kinschal, which means “Dagger” in German, proved to be vulnerable to air defense, the Ukrainians have now apparently also shot down a Russian hypersonic missile Kh-32 in the Kharkiv area.
Did Putin take the next drastic measure because of such losses?
As the American news portal
Newsweek
reports, citing the Russian news site of the British
BBC
, the Kremlin ruler had at least twelve rocket scientists imprisoned after the setbacks.
And allegedly under the pretext that they wanted to provide Russian missile technology.
Moscow autocrat: Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Vladimir Putin's hypersonic missiles: Patriot systems can intercept Kinschal
The cases were aimed at “showing that Russian missiles are the best and that they are trying to steal them,” said lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov, who represents the accused researchers, to the online news portal.
Three of the detainees are said to have even died after their arrest.
The information cannot be independently verified.
According to Newsweek
in March 2018 , Putin described the hypersonic missiles
as “superweapons” that could hardly be stopped by anti-aircraft systems.
But that is exactly what happened in Ukraine after the Russian invasion, which violated international law.
Specifically: The Ukrainian Air Force announced on May 6, 2023 that they had shot down a Kinschal with a Western Patriot system for the first time.
What's more: A single Patriot anti-aircraft system is said to have brought down six presumably unstoppable Kinschal missiles from the sky in the Kiev area on the night of May 15 to May 16, 2023, which cannot be independently verified.
A Russian MiG-31K fighter aircraft with a Kinschal hypersonic missile.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
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The Kinschal, including the warhead, weighs an estimated 1,000 kilograms and is around seven meters long with a diameter of one meter.
According to Russian information, it can reportedly reach speeds of up to Mach 10, which would be 12,348 km/h.
Ukraine had received two Patriot air defense systems from Germany.
The USA had also provided the battered and invaded country with a Patriot system.
But that's not all: As the
Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
reported last summer, the US manufacturer Raytheon & Lockheed wants to make five more Patriot systems available to Kiev by the end of 2024.
It is not known how the presumably imprisoned Russian rocket scientists are doing at the same time.
(pm)