Russian Ministry of Defence announces the use of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Ukraine

Valentyna Romanenko – Saturday, 19 March 2022, 09:36

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced that Russian troops have used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy an underground military storage facility in the West of Ukraine.

Source: Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, quoted by Interfax-Russia.

According to Konashenkov: "On 18 March, hypersonic aeroballistic missiles were launched from the Kinzhal aviation missile system and a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the village of Delyatyn, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, was destroyed."

Details: According to Russian media, the Kinzhal [Dagger] is an air-to-ground system with a high-precision hypersonic aeroballistic missile. It is based on an upgraded MiG-3 long-range fighter-interceptor – the MiG-31K.

According to the Russian military, it is capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 2,000 km, while being guaranteed to overcome all air and missile defence systems.

Ten Kinzhal aircrafts are reported to be on experimental combat duty in the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation.

In February 2022, Russian MiG-31K fighter jets with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles arrived in Syria for training exercises.