By Gleb Garanich and Sergiy Karazy
KYIV&nbsp;(Reuters) -Ukraine said on Tuesday it had&nbsp;shot&nbsp;down&nbsp;six&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;Kinzhal&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;in a single night, thwarting a weapon Moscow has touted as a next-generation hypersonic missile that was all but unstoppable.
When asked about the Ukrainian claim,&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed it, the RIA news agency reported. His ministry said a Kinzhal had destroyed a U.S.-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system.
&ldquo;A high-precision strike by the hypersonic Kinzhal missile hit a U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in the city of&nbsp;Kyiv,&rdquo; the defence ministry said in a statement.
Two U.S. officials said a Patriot system likely suffered some damage but had not been destroyed, and one said discussions on repairing it were underway and it did not appear the system would have to be removed from Ukraine.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, had said earlier that his forces had intercepted the six Kinzhals launched from aircraft, as well as nine Kalibr cruise&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;from ships in the Black Sea and three Iskanders fired from land.
Russia's Shoigu was quoted as saying the number of claimed Ukrainian missile intercepts in general is "three times greater than the number we launch".
"And they get the type of&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;wrong all the time. That's why they don't hit them," he said, without elaborating.
It was the&nbsp;first&nbsp;time Ukraine had claimed to have struck an entire&nbsp;volley&nbsp;of multiple Kinzhal&nbsp;missiles, and if confirmed, would be a demonstration of the effectiveness of its newly deployed Western air defences.
The United States and the European Union have supplied Ukraine with weaponry to defend itself since Russia invaded in February 2022.
EU and NATO member Hungary has refused, however, to provide any military equipment to neighbour Ukraine, and on Tuesday, the government said it had blocked the next tranche of the EU's off-budget military support known as the European Peace Facility.
Air raid sirens blared across nearly all of Ukraine early on Tuesday and were heard over the Ukrainian capital and the surrounding region for more than three hours.
"A year ago, we were not able to shoot&nbsp;down&nbsp;most of the terrorists'&nbsp;missiles, especially ballistic ones," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to the Council of Europe rights body in Iceland by video link.
"And I am asking one thing now. If we are able to do this, is there anything we can't do?"
The meeting of European leaders over two days was to focus on ways to hold Russia to account for its war, officials said.
Russia&nbsp;says&nbsp;its invasion was necessary to counter threats to its security posed by Ukraine's growing ties to the West.
Ukraine and its allies call it an unprovoked war of conquest and Ukraine&nbsp;says&nbsp;it won't stop fighting until all&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces leave its land.
FLASHES OF LIGHT AND DEBRIS
The six Kinzhals were among 27&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;Russia fired at Ukraine over 24 hours, Ukraine's military said in its evening update on Tuesday, lighting up&nbsp;Kyiv&nbsp;with flashes and raining debris after they were blasted from the sky.
It was unclear which Western weapon Ukraine used to defend against the Kinzhals. The Pentagon had no immediate comment.
For its part, Russia's defence ministry said its forces delivered a concentrated strike with long-range air- and sea-based high-precision weapons at Ukrainian forces, "as well as at places of storage of ammunition, weapons and military equipment delivered from Western countries&rdquo;.
Kyiv&nbsp;authorities said three people were wounded by falling debris.
"It was exceptional in its density - the maximum number of attack&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;in the shortest period of time," Serhiy Popko, head of the city military administration, said on Telegram.
Ukraine's military said two S-300&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;had also targeted infrastructure in Kostyantynivka, west of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut.
HYPERSONIC SPEED?
This month, Ukraine said it had&nbsp;shot&nbsp;down&nbsp;a single Kinzhal missile over&nbsp;Kyiv&nbsp;for the&nbsp;first&nbsp;time using a newly deployed Patriot system.
The U.S. military confirmed that but did not say whether the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;missile was flying at hypersonic speed at the time.
The U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)&nbsp;says&nbsp;the Kinzhal rapidly accelerates to Mach 4 (4,900 km/h) after launch and may reach speeds of up to Mach 10 - or 10 times the speed of sound. Hypersonic weapons travel at least five times the speed of sound.
The Kinzhal missile, the name means dagger, can carry conventional or nuclear warheads up to 2,000 km. Russia used the weapon in war for the&nbsp;first&nbsp;time in Ukraine last year and has only acknowledged firing them on a few occasions.
Russian&nbsp;President Vladimir Putin has frequently touted the Kinzhal as proof of world-beating&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;hardware, capable of taking on NATO.
With Ukraine set to go on the offensive against Russia's invasion for the&nbsp;first&nbsp;time in six months,&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces are launching longer-range air strikes at the highest frequency of the war.
Ukraine&nbsp;says&nbsp;it is shooting&nbsp;down&nbsp;most&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;and drones.
(Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Dan Peleschuk, Maria Starkova, Lidia Kelly and Phil Stewart; writing by Peter Graff, Angus MacSwan, Mark Heinrich, Grant McCool and Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Daniel Wallis)

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In first, Kyiv says shot down volley of Russian 'hypersonic' missiles