Russia launches massive attack on Ukraine with "invincible" missiles for the first time

Nga lần đầu tập kích ồ ạt Ukraine bằng tên lửa bất khả chiến bại - 1 — Russian MiG-31K fighter carrying Kinzhal missile (Photo: Tass).

Russian military website Top War reported that Russia today is believed to have attacked Ukraine for the first time with a large number of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles since the outbreak of war between the two countries.

According to sources, Russia has launched at least 11 Kinzhal missiles at targets across Ukraine from MiG-31K fighters. In previous attacks, Russia has typically launched a limited number of Kinzhal missiles.

This morning, Tu-95MS and MiG-31K strategic missile carriers took off to launch missiles at Ukraine.

"Kinzhal were launched every few minutes. This is the first time Russia has attacked Ukraine with such a large number of hypersonic missiles," a source told Top War.

Kropyvnytskyi, Lvov, Vinnitsa, Kiev, Kharkov, Ternopil and Rivne regions were hit by Russian missiles, causing power and water cuts in some areas of the capital. Several fires broke out in major cities.

Ukraine has not commented on this information. The damage caused by the attack is unknown.

Since the outbreak of hostilities, Russia has launched Kinzhal missiles at Ukrainian targets several times. Late last month, the Ukrainian air force announced that its Patriot air defense system had shot down 15 Russian Kinzhal missiles since the weapon was first used.

Russia has repeatedly declared that Kinzhal, a missile with a range of more than 1,000km and a speed of Mach 9 (11,113km/h), is an "invincible" weapon against any enemy air defense system at the moment.

Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukraine's claims that it could shoot down the Kinzhal, saying it is technically impossible.

According to a Russian official, the speed of Kinzhal exceeds the maximum interception capability of Patriot. He said that Kinzhal is capable of avoiding missiles in the terminal phase and hitting the target vertically, making it impossible for current surface-to-air systems to shoot it down.

At the same time, Russia claimed that a Kinzhal missile had destroyed a Ukrainian military Patriot air defense system. The US later confirmed that the Patriot was damaged in the Russian attack, but the shield had been repaired and returned to service.

The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic cruise missile system is one of the hypersonic weapons deployed by Russia since the late 2010s.

The danger of the Kinzhal missile lies in its accuracy, range and hypersonic speed. The Kinzhal possesses a special guidance system that allows the missile to change its trajectory to avoid enemy air defenses at all stages of flight, making it very difficult to shoot down.

The missile can carry a 500kg conventional warhead, or a nuclear warhead with an explosive equivalent of 100-500kt.

Last July, Vladimir Artyakov, deputy CEO of Russia's Rostec defense corporation, announced that Russia had begun mass production of the Kinzhal hypersonic missile in sufficient quantities to meet the military's needs.

This may be why Russia decided to launch a large number of Kinzhals at Ukrainian targets.

Source