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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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American military personnel may have been killed in a Russian strike on a United States-supplied Patriot air-defense system supplied to Ukraine, according to a Moscow-aligned lawmaker in comments reported by Kremlin-backed media.
When asked for a response to the claims, a spokesperson for the Pentagon told Newsweek, "I can confirm no U.S. injuries because we have no U.S. service members in the fight." Newsweek has reached out to Ukraine's Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Mikhail Sheremet, a State Duma deputy from the occupied Crimean region, told state news agency RIA Novosti that two Patriot air-defense systems had been targeted by the Russian army in the Donetsk region.
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"During the destruction of the Patriot air-defense system, U.S. military members also may have been killed," Sheremet said.
Social-media users emphasized that it was not an entire Patriot System worth around $400 million that was reportedly destroyed but rather two Patriot launchers, which cost $10 million each.
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The Kremlin-backed news agency reported that Sheremet had said that the technical difficulty of the Patriot system meant that "American military specialists could be secretly sent to Ukraine to service it."
Sheremet's claims about U.S. personnel being on the ground in the war, which the U.S. has taken pains not to be directly involved in, have not been independently verified. No further evidence was presented for the claims.
Russian-language media outlets, in particular on Telegram, have speculated about the Russian Iskander missile strike in the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk oblast on Saturday.
The Russian Defense Ministry released a video that it said showed the moment of impact of a strike on what it had initially designated as an S-300 missile system. Newsweek has as yet been unable to verify the footage.
Russian and Ukrainian media outlets cited a report by Forbes that said "two of the apparent Patriot launchers exploded, almost certainly killing their crews," following "a direct hit on the Ukrainian convoy from potentially hundreds of miles away."
This was the first time in the war that Russia had been able to hit components of the U.S.-supplied air defense systems, according to the Forbes report.
The Patriots arrived in Ukraine in April 2023, and their ability to target aircraft, cruise missiles, and shorter-range ballistic missiles fired by Russia added an extra dimension to Kyiv's fight against Moscow's aggression.
In recent weeks, the mobile launchers, along with radars, command stations and missile reloads, have been credited with shooting down at least a dozen Russian air force fighter-bombers.
Forbes said that, if confirmed, "the Ukrainians lost—in one calamity—up to 13 percent of their Patriot launchers, or seven percent if the Ukrainian batteries each have eight launchers."
Update 03/11/24, 8:31 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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