Considered Effective In Destroying Targets, Russia Will Continue Using Kinzhal Hypersonic Missiles To Attack Ukraine's Military

The Russian MiG-31 fighter jet carries the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - The use of the Kinzhal hypersonic air-to-surface missile in combat in Ukraine, confirmed its efficiency in destroying hard targets, according to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov.

Russia on Saturday admitted to using a hypersonic Kinzhal missile to destroy a large arsenal of weapons in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region. First use since the invasion on February 24.

"The combat use of the Kinzhal air-launch missile system has confirmed its effectiveness, in destroying highly protected special enemy targets," Major General Konashenkov was quoted as saying by TASS March 22.

"The Kinzhal missile is used with a conventional warhead," he continued.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018, provided a brief summary of the characteristics of the Kinzhal missile system. Its speed is 10 times the speed of sound. Its range is more than 2,000 km > Capable of performing evasive maneuvers at every stage of its flight, which allows it to overcome all air defense and missile defense systems. And, it can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads.

As previously reported, Major General Konashenkov said at a press conference on Saturday last week that the underground warehouse hit by the Kinzhal system on Friday held Ukrainian aircraft missiles and ammunition, according to press conference footage shared by Russian news agencies.

On the same occasion, he also revealed that Russian troops also attacked military radio and reconnaissance centers near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa using the Bastion-P coastal missile system.

Russia has described its invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation to disarm Ukraine and protect it from the Nazis. Meanwhile, the West has portrayed this as a false pretext for a war of unwarranted aggression to conquer a country that President Vladimir Putin has described as illegitimate.