Moscow said Monday that its air defense systems had shot down four US-made missiles over a southern Russian region bordering Ukraine, in one of its first such claims in nearly 10 months of fighting.
“Four American ‘HARM’ anti-radar missiles were shot down in the airspace over the Belgorod region,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on social media, referring to a region that says it is regularly hit by Ukrainian strikes.
Designed to target air defense systems equipped with radars, “HARM” missiles have a range of more than 48 kilometers (30 miles).
The missiles, which were first deployed in 1984, have been adapted so they can be fired from Kyiv’s Soviet-era warplanes.
Western-supplied weapons have helped turn the tide in Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, with Russia suffering a series of setbacks, most recently ceding the southern city of Kherson.
The Pentagon, responding to AFP‘s question on the downing of the missiles, said it was “unable to confirm those reports.”