Russia's Ministry of Defense announced on the 21st (local time) that the use of the Kh-47M2 'Kinzal' hypersonic missile in Ukraine confirmed the effectiveness of the missile in destroying difficult targets, Russian news agency TASS reported.
"The combat use of the Kinzal air-launched missile system has confirmed its effectiveness in destroying highly protected enemy targets," Russian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Igor Konashenkov told reporters.
"Strikes using this air-launched missile system against Ukrainian military infrastructure during special military operations will continue," he added.
He added that the Kinzal missile was equipped with a conventional warhead.
Kinzal is a missile that can hit a target by flying to a target point at hypersonic speed (more than 5 times the speed of sound) with the help of a self-propelled body after being launched from the air on a MiG-31 fighter, which is a basic payload.
It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads, and is known to have a maximum flight speed of Mach 10 (12,240 km/h) or more.
The Russian military explains that the Kinzal's range on the MiG-31 is 2,000 km, but if it is mounted on the Tupolev (Tu-22M3), which has a much longer combat radius, the range will increase to 3,000 km.
Russia claims that no other country has a hypersonic missile that can compete with the highly maneuverable Kinzal, with excellent radar detection and evasion capabilities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his annual State of the Union address in March 2018, introduced various strategic weapons developed by Russia and said of Kinzal, "It can overcome all existing air defense and intercept missile systems as well as systems in the near future." claimed.
The Russian Air and Space Force announced that it had deployed a MiG-31 squadron for the Kinzal test operation to its Southern Military District since December 2017, and in March 2018 successfully tested a missile for the first time.