Russia yesterday said it had used advanced hypersonic missiles for the first time in the Ukraine conflict as embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for urgent peace talks.
Moscow also said its troops had broken Ukrainian defenses to enter the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, and destroyed radio and intelligence sites near Odesa.
Ukrainian authorities said they had “temporarily” lost access to the Sea of Azov, although Russia has effectively controlled the coastline for weeks after ringing Mariupol.
Photo: AFP
Russia said it on Friday used the Kinzhal high-precision hypersonic missile, which can elude most defense systems, to destroy an arms depot in Deliatyn, a village near the border with Romania.
Moscow has never admitted using the state-of-the-art missile in combat before.
“The enemy targeted our depots,” but “we have no information of the type of missile,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said.
“There has been damage, destruction and the detonation of munitions,” he said. “They are using all the missiles in their arsenal against us.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy once again appealed for peace.
“This is the time to meet, to talk, time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said in a video published on Facebook. “Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that several generations will not recover.”
Ukraine said a Russian general had been killed by strikes on an airfield outside Kherson, just north of Crimea, saying he was the fifth top-ranking officer killed since the invasion began on Feb. 24.
A US official said Russia’s offensive remains largely stalled overall, with troops about 30km east of the capital, Kyiv, and facing heavy resistance.
As Putin’s ground offensive has been met with fierce resistance, Moscow has increasingly turned to indiscriminate air and long-range strikes.
Friday’s attack on the arms depot was the latest strike in western Ukraine, which until a few days ago had remained relatively unscathed by Russia’s push toward key cities from the north and east.
On Friday, Russian forces destroyed an aircraft repair plant near the airport of Lviv.
In Mariupol, rescuers were still searching for hundreds of people trapped under the wreckage of a bombed theater where more than 1,000 people had been seeking shelter.
Zelenskiy said there was still no information about potential fatalities, but 130 people had been saved so far -— some “heavily injured.”
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