Russia says it has deployed Kinzhal hypersonic missile three times in Ukraine
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has deployed hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles thrice over the course of what Moscow calls a “particular army operation” in Ukraine, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned on Sunday.
The Kinzhal missiles are a part of an array of recent hypersonic weapons President Vladimir Putin offered in 2018 in a bellicose speech during which he mentioned they might hit virtually any level on this planet and evade a U.S.-built missile defend.
Shoigu, talking on state tv, mentioned the missiles had proved efficient in hitting high-value targets on all three events, hailing them as with out examine and as virtually unimaginable to take down when in flight.
“We’ve got deployed it thrice in the course of the particular army operation,” Shoigu mentioned in an interview broadcast on Rossiya 1. “And thrice it confirmed good traits.”
Russia first used the Kinzhal system in Ukraine a few month after sending tens of hundreds of troops into its neighbour’s territory, putting a big weapons depot in Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk area.
This week, Russia’s defence ministry mentioned three MiG-31E warplanes outfitted with Kinzhal missiles had been relocated to the Kaliningrad area, a Russian Baltic coast exclave positioned between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania.
On Russia’s Navy Day late final month, Putin introduced that the navy would obtain what he referred to as “formidable” hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in coming months. The missiles can journey at 9 occasions the velocity of sound, outrunning air defences.
(Reporting by Reuters; Enhancing by Nick Macfie)
