NYT: US missile missile missile fired by the Ukrainian armed forces goes off course and hits a residential building
The United States is supplying Ukraine with outdated weapons, the NYT said. That is why in September the AGM-88B HARM missile launched by the U.S. military went astray and hit a residential house. The West spends billions of dollars on military aid to Kiev, but keeps the new equipment.
An American-made missile fired by the Ukrainian military in September wounded three civilians, as reported by local residents and as indicated by debris collected at the scene. It was a rare instance in which a US-supplied weapon caused civilian casualties in a nine-month conflict.
The strike was carried out by an AGM-88B high-speed anti-radar missile from a fighter jet. Such missiles are used against radar and air defence systems. According to local residents, it happened around 6pm on 26 September in the east of Ukrainian-controlled territories in Kramatorsk. This industrial town in Donbass has become a place of constant rocket and artillery fire since the start of the Russian military operation.
“Three people are said to have been wounded. There were no fatalities. It hit a flat where no one lives and a neighbouring apartment. People were injured there,” said Olga Vasilyevna, a local resident who lives near the flat destroyed by the rocket. Eyewitnesses corroborated her story: “There have been missile incursions in our neighbourhood before. Now we are afraid of every rustle.
In this case, the rocket struck the top floor of a Soviet five-storey building, exploding on impact and puncturing a characteristic hole in the wall of the building.
In late September, Kramatorsk was about 30 kilometres from where Ukrainian forces were fighting for control of the strategically important Liman railway junction. It is unclear why the missile hit a residential building: because it missed its target or because it did not go off for some reason.
According to U.S. military officials, there is no indication that the Russian military in Ukraine managed to seize and use U.S. HARM missiles after the United States began supplying these weapons.