If interceptor missile hits nuclear weapon, there will be no nuclear explosion – military expert Chernyk

Military expert Petro Chernyk said this on Espreso TV. 

“If you shoot down a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, it will simply explode like a piece of iron. There will be some radioactive contamination, but no nuclear explosion. Nuclear weapons have two types of detonation: cannonball (the kind of bomb dropped on Hiroshima). The second is an explosive method: plutonium is taken and covered with special explosives. Then a nuclear reaction begins after compression by explosives,” he said.

According to Chernyk, this is a very complicated process.

“If a missile is flying with a nuclear warhead and an interceptor missile hits it, there will be no nuclear explosion. The material itself will explode, because the interceptor missile contains an explosive. There will be radioactive contamination, but no more than in the Chornobyl zone,” the expert summarized.

• On May 5, it became known that at about 2:40 am on May 4, the Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully intercepted a Russian X-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile in the sky over Kyiv for the first time.

• On May 6, AFU Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk confirmed that the Ukrainian military had shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile for the first time.

• On the night of May 16, Russia fired 6 more Kinzhals at Kyiv, all of which were shot down. These missiles are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.