World community must strongly condemn use of Kh-22 missiles against civilians - Ihnat
Yurii Ihnat, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, said this on a Ukrainian TV program, Ukrinform reports.
"The use of such a missile against a densely populated city is in fact terrorism against the civilian population. It is a Kh-22 missile, an old Soviet missile, developed in the Soviet Union, which brought so much grief to the residents of Dnipro yesterday. We remember Kremenchuk [a June 2022 missile attack on the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, in which 20 people were killed], what happened there. This is not a shame, there should be an appropriate legal assessment - what happened in Kremenchuk, and in Dnipro, and in other cities where this missile was used, should be condemned by the world community in the harshest way," Ihnat said.
He recalled that the enemy had already used more than 210 such missiles in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Ihnat added that to destroy such missiles, Ukraine needs modern air defense systems capable of hitting ballistic targets, including Iskanders, potential Iranian-made missiles, if Russia receives them, and also one of the most powerful and inaccurate missiles, such as a Kh-22 missile.
He noted that everyone who comments on the work of the Ukrainian air defense forces should be careful in their comments, because Russian propaganda uses everything possible to discredit Ukraine and tries to accuse Ukraine of their crimes.
"This happens all the time, and it actually happened yesterday, when they used a comment by one of the respected people. [...] We have been saying for more than six months that we do not shoot down Kh-22 missiles. We shoot down Kalibrs, Kh-101s, Kh-555s, Kh-59s. The fact that we do not shoot down Kh-22 missiles is obvious, it is impossible to shoot them down, the radar cannot capture this target and cannot hit it. The occupiers and propagandists who make comments know this very well, but they use statements by certain officials in their informational attacks," Ihnat said.
