Russian hypersonic missiles hit Kyiv, damage children's hospital

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

On Monday, 8 July, in the morning, many Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, were hit by Russian missiles. According to the Unian agency, quoting a well-known military blogger, Vanka Nikolayev, the Russians used several dozen missiles, and Kalibr cruise missiles and Ch-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles hit Kyiv.

The second type is hazardous because Ukraine currently has only a few batteries of anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic systems capable of intercepting such targets. Moreover, even if they are intercepted successfully, missile debris weighing up to several hundred pounds must fall somewhere, causing destruction.

Ukrainian air defence is much weaker than in 2022 or even 2023, as local stocks of missiles for Soviet-era systems have been depleted. Replenishing them is practically impossible because missiles for many of these systems were produced exclusively by Russia, and their availability in the West is minimal.

The worst situation is with the medium-range systems of the S-300P and S-300V family, for which only Slovakia and an S-300P battery have provided missiles so far. Bulgaria has also supplied several missiles for refurbishment. However, this is insufficient, and Western countries' donations of a few Patriot and SAMP/T batteries did not close the gap in defensive capabilities.

It is noteworthy that Ukraine has also received much older equipment, such as the S-200 Vega and MIM-23 Hawk systems. Their performance, however, is inadequate against newer ballistic missiles. This makes Ukrainian critical infrastructure defenceless, as exemplified by the attack on the Trypilska TPP power plant near Kyiv.

Ballistic missiles such as the Iskander-M move along a ballistic trajectory, rising to higher parts of the atmosphere and descending at speeds exceeding Mach 7 (over 4500 mph). Such high speed makes them extremely difficult to shoot down, and only a few anti-aircraft systems can handle them.

Their evolution is hypersonic missiles, which reach the speed of ballistic missiles while retaining the ability to manoeuvre during flight. This is a significant difference compared to ballistic missiles, whose flight path is predictable. In the case of a hypersonic missile, the chances of it being hit by traditional anti-ballistic defence are much lower.

Many countries are trying to develop this type of weapon. Among them is Russia, whose Ch-47M2 Kinzhal missiles appear to be performing below Moscow's expectations. Meanwhile, the subsonic Kalibr cruise missiles accompanying the attack on Kyiv were used as decoys - the Russians tried to distract Ukrainian air defence from the more significant threat with their help.