Kinschal can bypass anti-aircraft systems.
(Photo: AP)
Moscow The Russian military has again used a Kinzhal hypersonic missile in its war against Ukraine, according to the Defense Ministry. The missile hit a fuel depot in Kostiantynivka near the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
Konashenkov said Kalibr cruise missiles were also used in the attack on the fuel depot. These were fired from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea. Kalibr missiles were also launched from the Black Sea to destroy an armaments repair factory in Nizhyn, in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine.
Konashenkov spoke of a third attack: Russian missiles hit a Ukrainian facility in Ovruch in the northern Zhytomyr region. Foreign fighters and Ukrainian special forces are said to have been stationed there.
On Saturday, the Russian Air Force said it used its new air-to-surface ballistic missile in a war for the first time ever. The military destroyed a missile arsenal with “Kinzhal” (dagger): The Ukrainian Air Force’s underground ammunition depot in Delyatyn in south-western Ukraine was destroyed by the ballistic missile on Friday, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konoshenkov, said on Saturday.
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So far, the weapons have been used primarily for manoeuvres. The last time this happened was a few days before the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
The projectile can bypass anti-aircraft systems.
(Photo: AP)
Two military reconnaissance bases were also destroyed in the Odessa region on the Black Sea. A total of 69 military objects, including four command bases in Ukraine, were destroyed on Saturday night, Konashenkov said. The information could not be verified.
Ukraine confirmed the first attack
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yurii Ihnat, confirmed to Ukrainian media that the ammunition depot was shelled on Saturday. Accordingly, the attack took place on Friday. However, it has yet to be confirmed whether the missile deployed by Russia was the hypersonic Kinzhal missile, he said.
The “Kinzhal” missiles are fired by MiG-31 fighter jets. According to Russian information, they can hit targets at a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers – while bypassing all air defense systems. Hypersonic missiles exceed the speed of sound by several times and fly at more than 6000 kilometers per hour.
Russia also justifies its war in Ukraine with the aim of demilitarizing the western-armed neighboring country. The Russian head of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, called on the USA and the NATO states to stop arming Ukraine “if they want peace as soon as possible”.
More on the Ukraine war:
The Ch-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missile is one of the most fearsome additions to the Russian Air Force. The rockets, which are around eight meters long, fly extremely fast and extremely high, but remain manoeuvrable, according to Russian information.
According to NATO, they can hardly be intercepted with conventional air defense or missile defense. The western alliance has dubbed the new Russian weapon AS-24 Killjoy (“spoilsport”).
President Vladimir Putin publicly introduced the “Kinzhal” missiles as one of several superweapons in his March 2018 address to the nation. According to him, the new rocket should reach up to ten times the speed of sound.
The missile can also carry a nuclear warhead
The “Kinzhal” is fired from high altitude by MiG-31 interceptors. Only at a safe distance from the aircraft does its own rocket engine ignite. It first carries the “Kinschal” up to 20 kilometers high, where the rocket has to withstand high friction temperatures, and then down to the target.
The “Kinschal” carries up to 480 kilograms of explosives or a nuclear warhead. The missile could thus attack important infrastructure in Europe, such as airfields, wrote the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Large NATO ships on the Atlantic could also become targets.
The USA and China are also working on the development of hypersonic missiles. NATO also lists research in Britain, France, Germany, Australia and India in a 2020 paper. Part of it is about defending against such missiles.
Because the new weapon class creates strategic uncertainty: is a conventional missile flying at me so quickly, or is it a nuclear attack? “Hypersonic missiles, with their novel combination of speed and maneuverability, can overcome all current missile defense systems and radically reduce the reaction time of the attacked actor,” wrote the Munich Security Conference in its 2019 report.
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