Putin fires hypersonic missile at Ukraine: Russia steps up war of attrition with another strike on west of country with 9,000mph missile

MAILONLINE ^ | 19 March 2022 | CHRIS JEWERS and WILL STEWART

[dennisw]

Putin fires hypersonic missile at Ukraine: Russia steps up war of attrition with another strike on west of country with 9,000mph missile as Kyiv claims invaders have suffered 15,000 casualties Moscow claims the 'Kinzhal'- or Dagger - missile is 'unstoppable' by current Western defensive weapons The weapon, which has a range of 1,250 miles, is nuclear capable. The Friday attack was a conventional strike Vladimir Putin has termed the missile 'an ideal weapon' that flies at 10 times the speed of sound The missile was one of an array of new weapons Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address in 2018 Russia first used the weapon during its military campaign in Syria in 2016 to support the Assad regime

Russia unleashed its 'unstoppable' Kinzhal hypersonic missiles for the first time in Ukraine, the defence ministry said today, destroying a weapons storage site in the country's west on Friday.

Russia has never before admitted using the high-precision weapon in combat, and state news agency RIA Novosti said it was the first use of the Kinzhal hypersonic weapons during the conflict in pro-Western Ukraine.

Moscow claims the 'Kinzhal'- or Dagger - is 'unstoppable' by current Western weapons. The missile, which has a range of 1,250 miles, is nuclear capable. This was a conventional strike.

'The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region', the Russian defence ministry said Saturday.

Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov also said that the Russian forces used the anti-ship missile system Bastion to strike Ukrainian military facilities near the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Ukraine defence officials are yet to comment on the Russian claims.

[Cronos]

Putin getting desperate for a win of any kind?

[dennisw]

As I tuned into the UK Daily Mail this morning, I bet myself that nothing unusual would be coming from Ukraine.

Pooty Poot making his big-ass speech the other day was the preamble and justification for going hypersonic. The question is, does he really have hypersonic missiles that can travel 5-8 thousand miles? With nukes on them?

[gundog]

Or just demonstrating capabilities.

[Celtic Conservative]

A weapon that advanced would be wasted in a war such as this. I call pravda bullcrap.

CC

[canuck_conservative]

Or maybe it’s just more overblown Russian propaganda, designned to scare Ukraine into surrendering

since Russia doesn’t seem to be able to defeat them on the battlefield

[Cobra64]

I call BS. The Russians parade a lot of plywood prototypes of their missiles and rockets for propaganda purposes. Their defense budget is 1/10th ours. Now, if it were a Chinese device, I could believe it.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Giving us a good look at it so we can develop countermeasures. Thanks, Vlad!

[gundog]

He has to scare them into quitting, or obliterate them, evidently. I don’t think he wants the latter.

[nathanbedford]

1. The use of a hypersonic missile might be an element of Russia's reported policy of escalate to de-escalate. A last throw in the negotiations?

2. It is unlikely that hypersonic missiles can add materially to the policy of reducing Ukrainian towns to rubble as a means of compelling surrender or even as a means to apply pressure during negotiations while limiting Russian casualties in house to house fighting because these missiles, no doubt, are very expensive.

3. The use of hypersonic missiles does not materially enhance Russia's woefully deficient conventional war making capacity.

4. The deployment of the hypersonic missile is clearly more saber rattling or, more accurately, nuclear saber rattling and should be dismissed as should all nuclear threats unless Biden enjoys Putin making all the rules of the game.

[odawg]

Does Russia actually have a missile that goes 9,000 mph?

[NorseViking]

From what I heard it was used for long range bunker busting capability. The target was the underground missile arsenal.

[srmanuel]

A couple of things about using the hypersonic missile, SO WHAT ??

It’s a couple of missiles that didn’t materially change anything on the battlefield.

Besides if you have a conventional weapon and you are in a war, why not use it.

Remember when the USA invaded Panama, the USA used the first stealth aircraft in combat by flying the F-117 Nighthawk on bombing runs, did we really need to use that plane to invade Panama, NO, but we had the technology so why not use it.

I would imagine using the hypersonic missiles are much more expensive than a conventional missile, the question has to be asked, given the cost of hypersonic weapons why not use conventional missiles versus more expensive hypersonic weapons that offer no extra strategic advantage.

[gundog]

I don’t know if he over-estimated his own abilities, under-estimated the Ukrainians, or both. I’m sure it’s a stereotype of Ukrainians, but I’m pretty sure they’d kill you with rakes and hoes, if that’s all they had. It’s gonna be tough to defeat them, and then govern them.

[BiglyCommentary]

The Russians are poseurs on steroids. Most of their “wonder weapon” announcements are comedy gold.

[BeauBo]

There have been reports that Russia was running low on their stocks of long range precision strike weapons, like Kalibr cruise missiles and Iskander surface to surface missiles.

It could be a demonstration, to counter that narrative (psyop), or it might also be out of necessity that they resorted to that weapon to strike that target. Maybe it had some ground penetrating capability, needed for such an underground target.

[canuck_conservative]

Does Russia actually have a missile that goes 9,000 mph?

Every ballistic missile with a range over 2000 miles strikes the ground at more than 9000 mph

so, they're all "hypersonic", and always have been

[canuck_conservative]

Does Russia actually have a missile that goes 9,000 mph?

Every ballistic missile with a range over 2000 miles strikes the ground at more than 9000 mph

so, they're all "hypersonic", and always have been

[JoeVortex]

16 replies and yet no one commented has on the source.

This is from the UK Daily Mail.

Come on Freepers, you know better than to accept anything they print on the war in Ukraine at face value.

These folks make the mainstream media’s coverage here in the US look credible by comparison.

[LordOddsocks]

“designned to scare Ukraine into surrendering”

My mother reminded me of Hitler and his V2, designed to do the same thing to London. She carried on regardless and continued to swap shrapnel at school!

Putin has reached about 1944 in his war with Ukraine, so by next weekend it will be a tactical nuke or he will be dead.