A high-tech Patriot air defence system provided to Ukraine suffered damage but is still working, a US defence official has said.
"The Patriot system remains operational" and the damage - caused by an unspecified projectile landing near it - is still being assessed, the official told AFP.
Ukraine repeatedly pushed for its supporters to provide the Patriot system to help shield against relentless Russian strikes targeting civilians and infrastructure, and the damaged battery is one of only two confirmed to have arrived in the country.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yury Ignat earlier said that "all is fine with the Patriot," but declined to specify if the sophisticated system had been damaged.
"The Patriot is in service," Mr Ignat told AFP. "All is well."
The Russian defence ministry said yesterday that its forces had struck a Patriot system in Kyiv with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
Kyiv announced Ukraine's air defence shot down six of Russia's hypersonic missiles, but Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu rejected that claim.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who unveiled the Kinzhal in 2018, has termed it "an ideal weapon" that is extremely difficult to intercept.
Kyiv also said it downed a Kinzhal using a Patriot system in the first week of May, describing it as a "historic event."
Boosting Ukraine's air defences
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Patriot system would significantly strengthen Ukraine's defences against Russian strikes.
After promising late last year that it would provide a Patriot battery to Ukraine, the United States trained a group of 65 Ukrainian troops on its use in the state of Oklahoma between January and late March.
Made by Raytheon, the MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system initially developed to intercept high-flying aircraft.
It was modified in the 1980s to focus on the new threat of tactical ballistic missiles, and was used in combat against Iraq's Russian-made Scuds in the first Gulf War.
Ukraine's air defences have played a key role in protecting the country from strikes and preventing Moscow's forces from gaining control of the skies.
But as Russia faced increasing setbacks on the ground, it began systematically targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine in attacks that have disrupted electricity, water and heat to millions of people.
When Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine's air defences largely consisted of Soviet-era planes and SAM systems.
They have been significantly augmented since the start of the war: in addition to Patriot, the United States provided NASAMS and Germany IRIS-T - two advanced systems -- while older equipment such as the S-300 and HAWK systems and Stinger missiles have also been donated.
Ukraine reports new advances near Bakhmut
Ukraine's military has said it had made new advances in heavy fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, and that Russia was continuing to send in new units including paratroopers.
The remarks were the latest by Kyiv in the past week to indicate that Russian forces have been pushed back in some areas around Bakhmut after months of combat.
"We are successfully conducting a defensive operation, counterattacking and during this day our units have penetrated up to 500 metres in some parts of the Bakhmut front," military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Ukrainian television.
He said he saw no sign that Russian forces were short of ammunition, contradicting statements by the head of a Russian mercenary group spearheading the assault on Bakhmut.
"The enemy is seeking to take over the city at will, striking with all systems and calibres. There can be no talk of any kind of shell hunger," Mr Cherevatyi said.
"They are moving new units there (to Bakhmut), primarily paratroopers, in an attempt to achieve some kind of intermediate success."
Moscow did not immediately comment on Mr Cherevatyi's remarks although Russia's RIA Novosti news agency quoted the Russian Defence Ministry as saying its forces were continuing to fight to capture western parts of Bakhmut.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield situation.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said yesterday that Kyiv's forces had reclaimed about 20 square kilometers of territory around Bakhmut in recent days.
She repeated that assertion today, and said fighting in Bakhmut was fierce.
Moscow sees Bakhmut, a city of about 70,000 before Russia's full-scale invasion nearly 15 months ago, as a stepping stone towards capturing the rest of the eastern Donbas region.
Ukrainian officials have signalled that the advances around Bakhmut are not part of a broader counteroffensive planned by Kyiv to push back the Russian forces.
