Russia's Defense Ministry has announced that the Russian military has fired a hypersonic ballistic missile into western Ukraine, destroying Ukraine's large underground weapons depot.
This is the first time that Russia is using these missiles in a war, which is known as Kinzel Ballistic Missile. These missiles have probably been fired with the help of MiG-31.
Russian officials claim that this hypersonic missile, known as 'Kinzel', is capable of hitting targets up to 2,000 kilometers away at speeds of more than 6,000 kilometers per hour.
How effective is a hypersonic missile
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly mentioned Russia's bet on hypersonic missiles, which are five times faster than the speed of sound. These rockets are 8 meters long and are equipped with high maneuverability.
But the question is, is it more dangerous than other conventional missiles and guns?
"I don't consider it that important. I don't know how much Russia will benefit from using hypersonic missiles," says James Acton, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
President Putin claimed last December that Russia is the world leader in hypersonic missiles, with missiles that are difficult to track because they can change direction mid-flight.
Dr. Laura Grego is a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She says that the missile must control its movement in the air to hit the target accurately and hide from the enemy. Modern hypersonic missiles are capable of doing this.
"They can change their course using aerodynamic force. Their shape is specially designed so that they can turn up and down or right and left while going very fast in the atmosphere," she says.
This ability helps him to attack by hiding from the eyes of the enemy. Although Laura says that tracking the missile is not difficult at all.
Laura Grego says, "These missiles not only reflect light but also generate heat and sensors can detect them. To detect ballistic missiles, the US and Russia have built a satellite system with infrared sensors in space.
Due to the heat and light, the infrared system can trace their entire path. The missile slows down before falling. Then they can show up on the radar too."
Dominika Kunertova of the Center for Security Studies in Zurich said, "It is a well thought out move. If hypersonic missiles are used, we have to treat them as a separate resource, because Russia does not have a large number of these missiles." Is."
Message to Western countries on the pretext of Ukraine
Four years ago, Putin touted the Kinzel as a range of "invincible" weapons he said were capable of penetrating enemy defenses. Other hypersonic missiles are the Zircon and the Avangard, and these also come with a much higher range.
The Kinzel is capable of carrying either a conventional or nuclear warhead. According to recent reports, MiG-31 fighter jets were sent to Kaliningrad.
However, it is not clear from where the Ukrainian arms depot was attacked.
"It's a signal to the West because Putin is angry that Western countries dared to send weapons to Ukraine," says Kunertova.
According to James Acton, the Kinzel was supposed to be a modified Iskander missile for fighter aircraft. And Russia has fired Iskander-M missiles from the ground with the help of launchers since the beginning of the war.
However, the firepower of Iskander-M is much less than that of air-launched.
Ukraine's defense ministry said this week that Russia had used almost all of its Iskander-M missiles during the first 20 days of the war.
A US defense official said on Friday that Russian forces have fired more than 1,080 missiles since February 24.
"This is a staggering number and constitutes a large part of Russia's war-stock. Due to the increasing use of unguided bombs in Russian airstrikes, it is largely possible that there It is getting lacking now.
Massive bombing of Mariupol
For the past three weeks, the Ukrainian military has prevented Russian forces from fully capturing the city of Mariupol.
Russia has filled Mariupol with artillery, rockets, and missiles. 90 percent of the city is ruined. Not only this, the supply of electricity, heating, fresh water, food, and health-related needs has also been stopped, which is being considered as a humanitarian disaster. Russia has now blamed Ukraine for this.
Russia said that Ukraine should surrender within the deadline of 5 am on Monday, but Ukraine has refused to do so.
If Russia captures Mariupol, it will have a big impact on the morale of both the countries involved in the war.
After Russia's victory in Mariupol, the Kremlin will be able to tell its people through state media that Russia is moving towards achieving its goal.
For the Ukrainians, Mariupol's passing would be a huge blow. Not only will it have military and economic implications, but it will also break the spirit of men and women who have been fighting on the ground for a long time to protect it.
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