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An AGM-88B air missile, designed to destroy enemy radars, missed its target and hit a building in Kramatorsk in September.
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By John Ismay
A U. S. -made missile fired through Ukrainian forces wounded 3 civilians in Ukraine in September, according to citizens and debris recovered from the scene, marking a rare example where U. S. -supplied weapons were used to use weapons in Ukraine. UU. se have been linked to civilian casualties in the nine-month conflict.
The attack, by an AGM-88B high-speed anti-radiation missile, which is fired from a fighter jet opposed to ground targets such as radar and air defense systems, occurred on Sept. 26 around 6 p. m. in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. , citizens said. The commercial city in Ukraine’s Donbass region has been the scene of constant missile and artillery attacks since Russia’s invasion in February.
As Russia’s floor war in Ukraine dragged on, it maintained an incredibly heavy barrage of missiles and drones that destroyed critical civilian infrastructure and killed or injured dozens of Ukrainian civilians. In response, Ukraine had to rely heavily on air defense systems, some of which they had sent through Western allies.
In one case this month, U. S. and Polish officials said a Russian-designed missile crossed Ukraine’s western border into Polish territory and killed more than two other people at most likely as anti-aircraft ammunition fired through Ukraine in reaction to a heavy Russian attack. .
The war in Ukraine was explained through an almost endless barrage of ammunition, and it is highly unlikely that the manufacture and origin of the thousands of bullets, artillery shells and missiles fired at the war front lines will be verified.
But New York Times reporters were able to gather and identify shards of steel left at the site of an earlier September attack in eastern Ukraine, providing a window into where billions of dollars in U. S. military aid sent to Ukraine can land.
“Three other people were injured,” they say. He didn’t die. It hit the apartment where no one lives, and in the next one other people were injured,” said Olga Vasylivna, a resident who lived next door to where the missile landed. His account was shown through witnesses. ” We have already had successes. in this neighborhood. Now we are afraid of each and every little whisper.
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry responded to questions about the missile attack.
The effort to conquer Ukraine’s skies and destroy Russia’s own air defense systems has taken on a new urgency in recent weeks.
This month, the United States announced that two complex national surface-to-air missile systems, or NASAMS, that fire missiles that Ukraine’s allies have in gigantic numbers, had been delivered to Kiev. Six more will arrive in Ukraine in the coming years.
The arrival of Western weapons into the Ukrainian army’s arsenal required a certain degree of manipulation and improvisation, in this case, to allow Soviet-era Ukrainian MiG fighters to fire the AGM-88, a missile for which it was not designed.
There are no recorded cases of Ukrainian forces intentionally targeting cities entirely under their control, indicating that the missile most likely missed the target and possibly failed. Russian troops, however, have targeted civilian infrastructure and population centers as a central and repeated tactic. .
To mask its attacks on civilians, the Kremlin has wrongly attributed some of those casualties to malfunctioning Ukrainian air defenses that attack residential spaces rather than intercepting approaching Russian missiles and drones.
What we before using unnamed resources. Do resources know the information?What is your motivation for telling us?Can we corroborate the information? Even with those questions met, the Times uses anonymous resources as a last resort. The journalist and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
In this case, the missile hit the most sensitive floor of a five-story Soviet-style apartment building, exploded and drilled a separate hole in the side of the building.
By the end of September, Kramatorsk was about 20 miles from where Ukrainian forces were seeking to retake the strategic Lyman railway crossing from the Russians. It is not known if the missile hit the construction because it did not hit the target and kept flying, or if the missile missile.
According to two U. S. defense officials, there is no indication that Russian forces in Ukraine have captured or effectively used HARM missiles since the U. S. has been in Ukraine. The U. S. Army began supplying the weapons.
Almost without delay after the explosion, photographs of rubble and shrapnel posted on a local Ukrainian-run Telegram channel contained manufacturer numbers and stickers indicating the missile was an American-made AGM-88B high-speed anti-radiation missile, or HARM.
The next morning, New York Times reporters physically inspected shrapnel at the site containing a meeting number connecting the debris to an electronic circuit board gasket used only on an AGM-88B, according to an online knowledge base that allows the public to search for information. on U. S. government property. U. S. Other portions of the destroyed ammunition also provided in the explosion were older missiles made in the United States.
The AGM-88 evolved through the U. S. Navy and Air Force. The U. S. military after the Vietnam War for specialized fighter jets to carry out missions to destroy enemy air defense missile sites. Once launched, the missile looks for certain types of electromagnetic radiation emitted through radars attached to the surface. -missile sites in the air and heads toward the source of radio signals more than 30 miles away, detonating 40 pounds of explosives in its warhead.
It is not known when the Pentagon began supplying AGM-88 to the Ukrainian military. But in August, U. S. defense officialsThey declared that Ukrainian forces were the weapon in combat. Videos posted on social media also showed its use.
The intended target of the AGM-88 that hit construction in Kramatorsk is unclear, but it is conceivable that it simply does not locate an enemy radar and hits the construction after running out of fuel. The missile will continue to fly if it misses its original target and will search for other enemy radar targets.
The Pentagon has long relied on stocks of aging aircraft to supply itself in Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian troops with worn out. -88B that hit the Kramatorsk apartment almost in fact came from old surplus reserves, as it has been replaced by a newer style in service with American forces.
The missile is just one of many munitions sent through the U. S. The U. S. and countries offer billions of dollars in deadly aid to Ukraine, and the Pentagon has since Aug. 4 announced separate military aid systems for Kyiv, including AGM-88 missiles.
A New York Times worker contributed to the report.
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