The U.S. Defense Department on Friday denied reports that Russia has deployed its laser weapon systems to Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday there were no indications that Russia had used laser weaponry in Ukraine, following claims by Moscow that it was fielding a new generation of powerful Peresvet and Zadira lasers there to strike drones.
“We don’t have any indication of the use of lasers, at least weaponized lasers, in Ukraine. Nothing to confirm on that,” Kirby said.
Just this week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov claimed that Russia is deploying laser weapons to Ukraine, in particular, the Zadira laser system capable of striking targets at a range of 5 km.
“They [laser weapon systems] have begun arriving [for the army]. The first types are already being employed,” Borisov said.
This system is capable of “easily shooting down various types of drones, avoiding expending costly missiles of the Pantsyr and Tor types,” Borisov added.
According to TASS, the new Zadira laser weapon system is more powerful than the Peresvet system, which is capable of blinding reconnaissance satellites at a distance of 1,500 km.
Russian state media reported that the Zadira is focused on physically destroying an object at a distance of up to 5 km and it literally burns through a target by its thermal impact.