Russia used ‘Kinzhal’ missiles on cities, top Ukraine aide says

Bloomberg

Russia has turned more destructive artillery, including “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles, against Ukrainian cities, a top Ukrainian aide said.
“Kinzhal & Bastion systems are used against peaceful cities,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Twitter.
It was the first official response from Ukraine to Russia’s claims that it has fired the powerful missiles twice in three days — the latest, to destroy a fuel depot in the Mykolaiv region. Authorities there issued an air-raid warning for about an hour.
Russia said it had used the missiles to destroy an underground weapons cache in the southwest of the Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense said the military used Kinzhal, or dagger, missiles to target the site storing missiles and aviation ammunition in the village of Delyatyn outside the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, according to an emailed statement.
The earlier claim wasn’t backed up by on-the-ground reports on social media, although hitting a large ammunition storage facility would undoubtedly be loud.
If verified, the strikes
would mark the first use of
the nuclear-capable advanced weapons system in the Ukraine war.
The US hasn’t commented publicly on Russia’s claims.
The Kinzhal, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, or more than 2 miles per second, President Vladimir Putin said when he announced the system in an annual state-of-the-nation address in 2018.
The Kinzhal was among several latest-generation strategic weapons that Putin said at the time could overcome any US defenses.
Hypersonic missiles travel at lower trajectories than conventional ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect. They can also maneuver to evade missile defense systems.
A UK defense intelligence update said that Russia has
increased “indiscriminate shelling of urban areas” as its forces bog down on the ground.
“It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower to support assaults on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” the UK said.