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| Russian Kalibr Cruise Missile Successfully Destroys Ukraine |
International Military - Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Friday that Russian forces destroyed "the largest of the remaining fuel depots" near Kyiv, with a strike carried out with sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it was Ukraine's largest remaining military fuel storage facility, supplying troops in the central part of the pro-Western country.
The announcement came on the 29th day of what Moscow has termed a "special military operation" in Ukraine, with thousands killed and more than 10 million displaced.
More details have emerged this week about the military arsenal that Russia is using in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday that Russia has also used hypersonic missiles in its invasion.
"And if you'll notice, (Russia has) just launched the hypersonic missile, because it's the only thing that they can get through with absolute certainty," Biden said. "It's a consequential weapon ... it's almost impossible to stop it. There's a reason they're using it."
But British intelligence and even Biden's own defense secretary have downplayed Russia's use of its air-launched Kinzhal missiles.
It was reported earlier that the Russian Military had fired a hypersonic ballistic missile and destroyed a large underground arsenal in western Ukraine.
The use of hypersonic ballistic missiles would be Russia's first in this war of the Kinzhal, or Dagger, air-launched ballistic missile, most likely by a MiG-31 fighter.
President Putin said that Russia leads the world in hypersonic missiles, which are difficult to track because they can change course mid-flight.
Russia posted a video it said was of its missile strike on an armory in Deliatyn, a village in southwestern Ukraine just 100km from the border with Romania.
Since the start of Moscow's military action in Ukraine, Russian troops have destroyed more than 260 drones, over 1,580 tanks and other armoured vehicles and 204 anti-aircraft weapons systems, the ministry said.
While Ukrainian forces have stalled the initial Russian invasion and even launched some successful counterattacks, there are early signs that both sides are digging in for a long and bloody war that neither can easily win.