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Saturday, April 1

10:51 PM

Moscow-backed Orthodox priest under house arrest. A Kyiv district court placed Russian-led Orthodox Metropolitan Pavlo (Petro Lebid) under house arrest. He is charged with inciting hatred and justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine. The arrest will last for 60 days.

9:20 PM

Zelensky criticizes UN for allowing ‘terrorist state’ to chair Security Council. President Volodymyr Zelensky said that with Russia chairing the UN Security Council, “it is hard to imagine something more evident that proves the complete bankruptcy of such institutions.”

8:00 PM

Yermak: Russia hits Avdiivka, damages civil infrastructure. The Russian army launched two missile attacks on the front-line city of Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, causing significant damage to infrastructure, according to President's Office Head Andriy Yermak.

7:41 PM

General Staff: Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka under heavy fire. The General Staff reported on April 1 that the fiercest battles take place in Donetsk Oblast, near the strategic city of Bakhmut, as well as Avdiivka and Marinka.

5:42 PM

Kuleba: Russian UN Security Council presidency 'a slap in the face to the international community.' Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the UN Security Council members to "thwart any Russian attempts to abuse its presidency."

4:48 PM

Russian shelling of Kherson Oblast kills 1, wounds 1. One person was killed on April 1 by Russian shelling of Kherson, President Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, reported on Telegram.

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National, Hot topic, Weapons, Russia's war, NATO

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What we know about Polish anti-aircraft weapons sent to Ukraine

by Illia Ponomarenko February 4, 2022 12:23 PM 2 min read

A Polish soldier takes aim with a PPZR Piorun anti-aircraft system (ArmyInform)

Poland, which recently joined the club of nations supporting Ukraine with weaponry against the looming Russian aggression threat, decided to provide Ukraine with better weapons than previously expected.

Instead of PZR Grom, the Polish military's workhorse anti-aircraft missile systems promised to Kyiv, Poland is sending a more advanced and modern weapon of the kind – the PPZR Piorun, as well as munitions to it.

The Polish government approved a request by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak to do so on Feb. 2. The Boryspil Airport is yet to welcome expected dozens of Pioruns, along with unmanned aerial vehicles also promised to Ukraine. According to official statements, they will arrive in the nearest future.

So what do we know of these weapons?

PPZR Piorun is a short-range, man-portable anti-aircraft missile system produced by Polish company Mesko. It is alternatively known as Grom-M (where M stands for "modified"). As the name suggests, it is a deeply modified and modernized version of Grom (Polish for "thunder"), which in its turn is a localized Polish version of older Soviet-made 9K38 Igla systems (NATO reporting name SA-18 Grouse) operated since the early 1980s.

Piorun (Polish for "thunderbolt") was introduced in the Polish military as recently as 2019 to gradually retire increasingly obsolete Groms. Defense Minister Blaszczak in his Feb. 2 announcement said Poland is giving Ukraine its "newest weapon."

The system weighs 16.5 kilograms and is 1.6 meters long in total. The weapon is designed to target low-flying airplanes and helicopters, as well as drones. According to developers, Piorun is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 6,500 meters and at an altitude of up to 4,000 meters, which is enough to engage any Soviet or Russian-made combat helicopter.

The missile's fragmenting warhead's infrared targeting system was seriously improved, which gave the system a wider operational range and stronger ability to resist interference. Besides, the weapon has an individual authorization system for operators and is also adapted to be used in night time.

Upon its specifications, the Piorun is generally comparable or even superior to its newest Russian rival, 9K333 Verba system, which has been in operation since 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hnzT3Vo13-o

Illia Ponomarenko

Defense reporter

Illia Ponomarenko is the defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.

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“We truly need popular support, especially during wartime. Being not dependent on a single money bag telling journalists what to do has always been quite a task in Ukraine. In wartime, that’s even more important.”

Illia Ponomarenko, defense reporter