Russia claimed on Saturday that it fired a hypersonic missile on Friday at Delyatyn And the people in Delyatyn are silent about it They say they did not hear or see anything Russia used its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles on Friday to destroy an underground missile and ammunition storage site in western Ukraine close to the border with NATO member Romania in what analysts said was the first use of such weapons in the world The Defense Ministry made the announcement on Saturday with the escalation coming on the 24th day of the conflict as Ukrainians are putting up fierce resistance and the advance of Russian troops stalled 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 (Dagger) hypersonic weapons during the conflict in pro-Western Ukraine "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 Defense Ministry said Saturday.  A Defense Ministry spokesman declined to comment when reached by AFP.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed the Kinzhal air-launched missile "an ideal weapon" that flies at 10 times the speed of sound and can overcome air-defense systems.  The Kinzhal missile was one of an array of new weapons Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address in 2018 a village in the foothills of the picturesque Carpathian mountains is located outside the city of Ivano-Frankivsk The region of Ivano-Frankivsk shares a 50-kilometer (30-mile) long border with Romania Hypersonic missiles can be used to deliver conventional warheads more rapidly and precisely than other missiles But their capacity to deliver nuclear weapons could add to a country's threat increasing the danger of a nuclear conflict "This is the first case of the use of hypersonic weapons in combat in the world," military analyst Vasily Kashin told AFP and several other countries are working on the technology head of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at Moscow's Higher School of Economics said that compared to cruise missiles hypersonic weapons were more efficient at destroying underground storage sites "A hypersonic missile can have higher penetration and destructive power due to its very high speed," he said making it harder to track and defend against But some experts have said Russia might be exaggerating the abilities of its hypersonic arsenal Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer suggested that the use of the Kinzhal would change little on the ground in Ukraine "Fundamentally this does not change anything on the battlefield but it gives a certain psychological and propaganda effect to scare everyone," he told AFP He said Russian forces could have used the advanced missiles also because they might be running out of other weapons defense strategy researcher and chief editor of DSI he suggested that Russia might be running out of Iskander short-range ballistic missile systems or wanted to raise the stakes by deploying a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in Ukraine Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." 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All rights reserved The author captured the Jewish cemetery in Delyatyn which is currently not protected by the state "The jury noted not only the artistic quality of the works but also the detailed documentation — over a hundred photographs of the cemetery were uploaded which was previously represented in wiki projects by only three photos," the post said Among the jury of the special category were the Osbornes a couple who restore and organize Jewish cemeteries in Rohatyn "This photograph depicts one of the few surviving Jewish cemeteries in the western part of Ukraine which is aging naturally without external intervention The photo illustrates the typical density of burials that existed in these old cemeteries as well as the unique style of carving inscriptions and symbols (both primitive and more refined)," Marla and Jay Osborne commented on one of Taras Zolotavin's photographs The author of the series made his debut in the photo contest in 2021 he ranked among the top ten most successful participants Taras Zolotavin serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine Wiki Loves Monuments is a photo contest of cultural heritage sites held by regional branches of the Wikimedia Foundation in approximately 50 countries worldwide including Ukraine. The organizers aim to collect photographs of all cultural heritage sites worldwide and place them on Wikipedia pages Participation in the contest is free and open to both professional photographers and amateurs The only requirement is that the submitted photos must be the author's own work and uploaded during the contest period Publication date 21 March 2022 | 06:33 ICT Ukraine called on China on March 19 to join the West in condemning “Russian barbarism” as Moscow claimed it had struck a Ukrainian arms depot with hypersonic missiles in what would be the first use in combat of the next-generation weapons not far from the country’s western Romanian border came as Russia said its troops had broken through Ukrainian defences to enter the besieged southern port city of Mariupol With the “special military operation” in its fourth week Kyiv’s embattled leader Volodymyr Zelensky pressed for “meaningful” talks to halt fighting that has forced at least 3.3 million Ukrainians to flee their country The plea for China to condemn the offensive came from a top Zelensky adviser China could play an important role in global security “if it makes a right decision to support the civilised countries’ coalition and condemn Russian barbarism.” China has so far refused to condemn the military offensive Russia’s claim on March 19 to have unleashed its new hypersonic Kinzhal missile would mark a dramatic new escalation of its campaign to force Ukraine to abandon hopes of closer ties with the West Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat said the arms depot in the western village of Deliatyn had indeed been hit but “we have no information of the type of missile” has termed it “an ideal weapon” that flies at 10 times the speed of sound making it extremely difficult for missile defences to intercept Ukraine officials admitted they had “temporarily” lost access to the Sea of Azov though Russia has effectively controlled the coastline for weeks after surrounding Mariupol Zelensky on March 19 again appealed for peace urging Russia to accept “meaningful” talks in his latest video posted on social media time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine,” he said Russia’s losses will be such that several generations will not recover.” But as in previous negotiations there appeared to be little progress in reaching a ceasefire Russia carried out air raids on March 19 on the southern city of Mykolaiv in quick succession a day after a deadly strike on a military barracks there Ukraine claimed that a Russian general had been killed by strikes on an airfield outside Kherson Ukraine said he was the fifth top-ranking officer killed since the offensive began on February 24 British foreign secretary Liz Truss said on March 19 that Moscow was using talks as a “smokescreen” as it carried out “appalling atrocities” Fierce resistance has managed to stall Russian forces outside Kyiv and several other cities in the east making them vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks against supply lines Although both the United States and Russia are believed to have possessed operational hypersonic missiles since the early 1990s it was Russia that first made its operational usage when it fired a few 9K720 Iskander-M surface-to-surface battlefield support missiles (SS-BSM) in a short war with Georgia in 2008 the Mach 6 Iskamder-M is being produced by the Votkinsk Plant State Production Association (Votkinsk) with the Volvograd-based ‘Barricades’ Production Association making the  ground support equipment The air-launched Mach 10 version of this SS-BSM is known as the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (‘Dagger’) and its range is 2,000km when carried by the MiG-31K and 3,000km when carried by the Tu-22M3 ten Kinzhal-armed MiG-31Ks were on experimental combat duty and they were ready to be deployed aircraft armed with Kinzhals had conducted 89 sorties over the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea crews of the MiG-31K Kinzhal-carriers had performed more than 380 training sorties of which at least 70 used mid-air refuelling The Kinzhal made its public debut in August 2019 a Kinzhal was launched by a MiG-31K from Syria’s Khmeimim air base against a ground target A separate aviation regiment has been formed armed with MiG-31K aircraft with the Kinzhal hypersonic missile in 2021 Kinzhal missiles were fired to destroy an underground weapons depot of the Ukrainian armed forces in Deliatyn Another hypersonic missile that is nearing operational deployment by Russia is the 3M22 Zircon winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body A solid-fuelled booster stage accelerates it to supersonic speeds after which a scramjet motor with JP-10 liquid-fuel in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds The first prototypes were test-launched from a Tu-22M3 bomber in 2012 Launches from a ground-based platform followed in 2015 the Zircon had attained a speed of Mach 8 during a flight test Russia announced that this missile’s air-launched variant was already service-inducted Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the Zircon is capable of accelerating up to Mach 9 and destroying both sea-based and land-based targets within a distance of 1,000km the Zircon was first test-launched from the Project 22350 guided-missile frigate (FFG) Admiral Gorshkov in the Bzarents Sea and it successfully hit a ground target in the Northern Urals 500km away while attaining a cruise altitude of 28km Flight tests of the missile from a land-based coastal battery and FFG were completed by late September 2021 the Russian defence ministry announced the successful test of a Zircon launched from a Project 885 nuclear-powered submarine (SSGN) for the first time from a surfaced position India is reportedly the first export customer of the 3M22 Zircon The Russia-India joint venture company BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd had first shown a scale-model of the BrahMos-2 back in 2013 at the Aero India expo in Bengaluru First deliveries to India are expected by 2026 The state-owned Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) began developing ballistic missile-delivered HGVs in 2010 and in June 2019 the first test-firing of a hypersonic missile was conducted followed by another one on 7 September 2020 Known as the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) it is an unmanned scramjet-equipped Agni-1 missile with a capability to travel at a speed of Mach 6 at an altitude of 30km Coming to inter-continental hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) China’s DF-ZF HGV has been tested nine times and Russia’s Yu-71 HGV also has been tested several times The gliders are launched atop ballistic missiles and travel along the edge of the atmosphere at speeds ranging from Mach 5 to Mach 10 The DF-ZF HGV has been flight-tested by China nine times August 7 and December 2 in 2014; June 7 and November 27 in 2015; and in April 2016 and was followed by its launch from a DF-17 on November 1 and 15 in 2017 The DF-ZF detached from the DF-17 during the re-entry phase and flew approximately 1,300km to a target the DF-17 will boost the DF-ZF to Mach 5 or faster at which point the latter would separate from the booster and angle toward its target manoeuvring to correct its course or evade enemy air-defences then glides to a target on a flight path much different (and much less predictable) than that of a traditional ballistic missile The glide path is lower and slower than a normal ballistic missile payload although still generally higher and faster than a traditional cruise missile The DF-17/DF-ZF combination is configured as a conventional munition with its destructive effect being derived from the kinetic energy of the HGV The average speed of the DF-ZF has been assessed at 2,121 metres/ second It has been under development since the previous decade by Department 7 of the PLA’s Naval Aeronautical Engineering Institute in Yantai China’s latest missile equipped with an HGV is the YJ-21 ‘Eagle Strike’ which was first test-fired on April 19 from a Type 055 guided-missile destroyer whose vertical launch cells can accommodate missiles with a length of 9 metres and diameter of 0.85 metres The 1,500km-range YJ-21 is a derivative of the Dongfeng-21 2,700km-range medium-range ballistic missile which uses a two-stage solid-fuel rocket engine LOGIN HERE Old Editions (Print Issue) March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 All Archives (Industry & Service News) The Man for All Seasons – October 2017 The New Normal – August 2016 Untie the Knot – August 2016 Defending Tawang – September 2010 Interview | Dr V.K. 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