Fact check: A post claiming an American-made missile hit the Kyiv Children’s Hospital is false
The summary discusses a post shared on social media claiming that an American-made air defense missile hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv. However, experts and observers believe that the missile is likely Russian, with the Ukrainian government also confirming that a Russian cruise missile hit the hospital. Despite social media claims, evidence points to the missile being a KH-101, a Russian air-launched cruise missile. Various sources, including Bellingcat and the Institute for the Study of War, have analyzed the situation and determined that the missile was indeed Russian-made. Check Your Fact and other fact-checking sources have verified this information, debunking the misleading claims about the missile’s origin.
A post shared on X claims that an American-made air defense missile hit a Kyiv children’s hospital.
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) July 8, 2024
Verdict: Misleading
Experts and observers have said the missile is likely Russian. The Ukrainian government said a Russian cruise missile hit the hospital.
Fact Check:
A missile hit a Kyiv children’s hospital on July 8, according to Reuters. Ukraine said the missile was Russian, the outlet reported.
Social media users are claiming that the missile was American-made. One user wrote, “An American Patriot air defense missile, fired by Ukraine, hit a Kyiv children’s hospital this morning. Of course, they’re blaming Russia… again.”
This claim is misleading. While Check Your Fact cannot definitively state what kind of missile hit the hospital, the Ukrainian Security Service has said that the missile was a KH-101, according to Reuters.
The KH-101 is an air-launched cruise missile that is used by Russia, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Missile Threat Project. The KH-101 is described as [a] stealthy missile, the Kh-101/-102 is designed to defeat air defense systems by flying at low, terrain-hugging altitudes to avoid radar systems.”
Bellingcat, an open-source analysis and investigative group, stated that “an analysis conducted by Bellingcat using social media footage as well as a 3D model of the missile, all point to the munition being a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.”
BILD journalist Julian Röpcke said in a July 8 X post that an image taken before impact shows a “[t]ypical KH-101 shape.”
Typical Kh-101 shape is well visible in this image, taken one second before the impact at the children’s hospital. pic.twitter.com/XmG3Po4j6m
— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) July 8, 2024
“Typical Kh-101 shape is well visible in this image, taken one second before the impact at the children’s hospital,” Röpcke tweeted. (RELATED: Fact-Checking Claims About Levels Of Destruction In Gaza)
Check Your Fact also reviewed a video of a Russian Tu-160 bomber launching a KH-101 in 2015. A screenshot shows that the missile is similar in profile to the missile that hit the hospital.
Screenshot/Russian MOD
Jett Goldsmith, managing editor of the open-source intelligence website Offbeat Research, told Check Your Fact in an email that the “munition was fired by Russian forces as part of a broader standoff missile barrage targeting sites across Ukraine, which is a common tactic used by Russian forces during the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.”
“Freeze-frames and ground imagery from the strike readily identify the munition as a Russian-made Kh-101 cruise missile. This is evident from several visual components of the missile, including the uniquely identifiable rear jet intake and the pointed nose-tip,” Goldsmith said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which tracks the Russian-Ukrainian war, stated in its July 8 assessment that the “trajectory of the missile in the video and the visible turbojet engine under its hull match the frame of a Russian Kh-101 and do not support claims that it was an air defense interceptor, nor does the missile appear damaged by air defense interceptors.”
Fabian Hoffman, a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project (ONP), also concluded that the missile was a Russian KH-101.
Here is a summary of the details that I posted yesterday conclusively proving the missile in question is a Kh-101, not an AIM-120 or any other type of missile. From the rear section to the front part:
1) If you zoom in and look closely, you’ll see atmospheric distortions… pic.twitter.com/xkVypbcXbW
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) July 9, 2024
“Overall: Anyone claiming this is not a Kh-101 is denying reality,” Hoffman tweeted. (RELATED: Joe Biden Falsely Claims Zero Troops Died Abroad During His Presidency)
Bellingcat also created a 3D model of an American-made AIM-120 air defense missile and compared it with the images and videos of the missile that hit the hospital.
“When comparing this model to images of the missile that hit the hospital, factors like the forward fins of the AIM-120 not matching were apparent. Additionally, the nose of the AIM-120 is much sharper than that of the missile in the hospital strike video. Perhaps most noticeable is the absence of any component on the AIM-120 matching the jet engine seen at the rear of the missile in the video,” Bellingcat concluded.
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