“We will definitely report what, where, with what, and when it was shot down,” he said. “All in its own time.”

While Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine have been bombarded with missiles, rockets, drones and bombs for more than a year and thousands of civilians have been killed in Russian onslaughts, the repeated attacks on Kyiv by Russian drones over the past two weeks have put many in the city on edge.

Ukraine has become adept at shooting down Russian cruise-missiles and drones — often knocking some 70 to 80 percent of them out of the sky in any particular attack — but the ones that make it through the complex air defense network can do tremendous damage.

The Kinzhal, or Dagger, is a modified version of the Russian Army’s Iskander short-range ballistic missile, which is designed to be fired from truck-mounted launchers on the ground. Launching the missile from a warplane at high altitude, instead of from the ground, leaves it with more fuel to use to reach higher speeds.