There's been little progress in Russia-Ukraine talks, which the Trump administration has backed - the latest held in Istanbul a week ago - and by all appearances the war continues to heat up and possibly expand.
Russia's defense ministry (MoD) has published battlefield footage which purports to show a Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system destroying a US-supplied Patriot air defense system operated by the Ukrainian military.
Illustrative: Iskander missiles firing, TASS/Russia MoDA Thursday Telegram post by the MoD showed the strike on a position in Dnepropetrovsk region, which it says destroyed a multifunctional AN/MPQ-65 radar, a control unit, as well as two Patriot launchers.
Russian state media has touted that this amounts to a loss of advanced military hardware worth over $1 billion. President Zelensky has already for months been complaining US-supplied air defense systems
European allies, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain - have long worked to donate and transfer the anti-air system with Washington's approval.
Greece has continued to refuse to send Ukraine any of its Patriot batteries, citing the need to defend its homeland, also given Turkey is an ever-present threat amid a spat over maritime rights and sovereignty. Likely Greece also realizes any Patriot it donates could just as quickly be destroyed by Russia's superior aerial power.
"There is no discussion about supplying Patriot systems from Greece to Ukraine," a Greek official told Reuters early this month.
New drone footage from near the Ordzhonikidze settlement in the Dnepropetrovsk region has shown the destruction of multiple key components of an MIM-104 Patriot long range surface-to-air missile system operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, after it was successfully targeted by Russian forces using the Iskander-M ballistic missile system. The strike took place approximately 100 kilometers behind the frontlines, at a time when Russian forces in the region have made significant advances. --Military Watch Magazine
Watch: the opening footage below features the official MoD clip of the Patriot being taken out...
However, there is also evidence that American and Western-supplied systems continue to at times successfully intercept inbound Russian fire. The Western allies have sunk hundreds of billions of dollars into defending and propping up Ukraine's government and military.
Russia's military has enough firepower to still overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses, and so successes might still be few and far between. Watch harrowing footage of a fresh intercept below...
Footage of a Ukrainian MIM-23 I-HAWK surface-to-air missile slamming into a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile over western Ukraine.
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 23, 2025
The 40-year-old US SAM system, built to face a Soviet threat and now fighting a Russian one, continues to score kills in Ukrainian service. pic.twitter.com/ecwq9uhbgg
What all of this demonstrates is that the proxy war between Russia and NATO is still going strong, and risks further escalation, given also President Putin has just ordered large buffer zone to be established within Ukraine's border, to protect Russia against cross-border shelling and drone attacks.
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