KYIV (AFP) - Russia said on Sunday (March 20) it has again fired its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, destroying a fuel storage site in the country’s south.
The Russian defence ministry also said it killed more than 100 members of Ukrainian special forces and “foreign mercenaries” when it targeted a training centre in the town of Ovruch in northern Ukraine with sea-based missiles.
“Kinzhal aviation missile systems with hypersonic ballistic missiles destroyed a large storage site for fuels and lubricants of the Ukrainian armed forces near the settlement of Kostyantynivka in the Mykolaiv region,” the defence ministry said.
The ministry said the base had been used for the main supplies of fuel for Ukrainian armoured vehicles in the country’s south.
The Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles were fired from airspace over Russian-controlled Crimea, the ministry said, adding that Kalibr cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea had also targeted the depot.
On Saturday, Russia said it had used the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy an underground missile and ammunition storage site in western Ukraine close to the border with Romania, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) military alliance.
The Ukrainian armed forces confirmed to AFP on Saturday that the depot had been targeted but said they had “no information of the type of missile".
Russian analysts said the use of the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Deliatyn, a village in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, on Friday was the first combat use of such weapons in the world.
The Russian defence ministry said it also used long-range precision weapons against other facilities in Ukraine on Saturday evening and early Sunday.
Russian forces fired the Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea to target a plant in the northern city of Nizhyn used to repair armoured vehicles, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine sees a high risk of an attack on western Ukraine’s Volyn region being launched from Belarus, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said on Sunday, citing the military.
The Russian invasion has mostly focused on northern, southern and eastern areas of Ukraine, though missiles also hit the Yavoriv military base last week, close to the Polish border.
It was not immediately clear whether Ukraine saw the threat of an attack on Volyn from Russian forces or the Belarusian military, which has so far not publicly committed troops to supporting Russia.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced more than 3 million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States, the world's two biggest nuclear powers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the "special military operation" in Ukraine was necessary because the US was using the country to threaten Russia and Russia had to defend against the "genocide" of Russian-speaking people by Ukraine.
Ukraine said it is fighting for its existence and that Mr Putin's claims of genocide were nonsense. The West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia that the Kremlin said amount to a declaration of economic war by the US and its allies.
