Russia’s defense military claims to have destroyed a Ukrainian underground missile depot in the Ivano-Frankivsk region during a strike yesterday
Russia’s defense ministry claims it has used hypersonic missiles for the first time ever in combat.
It said Russian forces had destroyed an underground Ukrainian missile depot in the Ivano-Frankovsk region yesterday.
Details about the operation remain scarce, but Russia has previously bragged about its hypersonic weapons arsenal.
The strike is believed to have been carried out using Kinzhal – or ‘Dagger’ – missiles, which have been claimed to have a range of around 2,000 km.
Their speed and ability to fly low makes them “invisible” to most anti-missile defense systems, and they are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, experts have said.
Russia said it had also destroyed Ukrainian military radio and reconnaissance centres near the port city of Odessa using a coastal missile system, Interfax news agency reported.
It is unknown how many casualties there were in the strikes.
“The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground ammunition depot in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
It is the first known time the new Kinzhal has been used in the conflict but it was earlier “tested” in Syria.
Putin previously said that the country began to create hypersonic weapons “in response to the US deployment of a strategic missile defense system”.