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RUSSIA claims it has launched a second deadly hypersonic missile at Ukraine, capable of travelling five times the speed of sound.

The powerful Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from ships in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea at Ukrainian military infrastructure, Russia's Defence Ministry said.

The Kalibr missile was launched from a ship in the Black Sea
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The Kalibr missile was launched from a ship in the Black SeaCredit: AP
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced the launch on Sunday
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Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced the launch on SundayCredit: AFP

Strikes were reportedly carried out using long-range precision weapons on the evening of March 19 and the morning of March 20.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the missiles were launched from ships in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea at Ukrainian military infrastructure.

The strikes hit a site in the city of Nizhyn in Chernihiv state, 116 miles northeast of the capital Kyiv in the north of Ukraine.

Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: "Workshops at the Nizhyn repair plant used for the repair of Ukrainian armoured vehicles damaged in combat operations were destroyed with sea-based Kalibr cruise missiles launched from the waters of the Black Sea."

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He added that Kalibr missiles launched from the Caspian Sea and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles launched from airspace over Crimea had also destroyed a huge Ukrainian base used for storing fuel and lubricants near Kostayantynivka, in the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine.

Konashenkov said the base had been used to supply fuel to Ukrainian armoured vehicles in the battlefields in the south of the country.

The Kalibr weapon, which can travel at up to five times the speed of sound, is so powerful that it has been dubbed 'The Sizzler' by NATO.

Further missiles, including the hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, were also launched from Crimea to destroy a fuel storage facility used by Ukraine, he added.

Although Sunday's launch of Kinzhal missiles hasn't been officially verified, they were used yesterday in western Ukraine.

On Saturday, Russia launched its 'Kinzhal' (Dagger) hypersonic missile, the first time such a weapon has been used since the start of the Ukraine war.

Video captured the dramatic moment a Russian hypersonic missile destroys an ammunition depot in the west of Ukraine.

Moscow claims its 'Kinzhal' rockets cannot be stopped by western missile defence systems.

The video reportedly filmed from a military drone shows the moment a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ivano-Frankivsk was hit by a deadly Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

Russia's defense ministry said: "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."

Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the "unstoppable" weapon was deployed on Friday.

It is the first known time the new Kinzhal has been used in the conflict but it was earlier "tested" in Syria in war conditions.

President Putin earlier branded the missile "an ideal weapon" that flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be brought down by conventional air-defence systems.


It comes as...


The Kinzhal can is nuclear-capable but this was a conventional strike.

It has a range of  1,250 miles and has no match in the West, according to Moscow. 

Konashenkov also claimed Russia had destroyed Ukrainian military radio and recon centres near the port city of Odesa using its Bastion coastal missile system, as reported by the Interfax news agency.

Moscow also claims it has struck a Ukrainian military preparation centre near Lviv, where foreign fighters joining Ukraine's troops were based.

The Kremlin continues to deny Western claims it is targetting civilian areas.

So far, Russia's invasion has left thousands dead, displaced more than three million people, and raised fears of a wider confrontation with the US, the world's other biggest nuclear power.

President Putin insists the "special military operation"; - as he describes the invasion of Ukraine - is necessary because the US was using the country to threaten Russia.

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He also claims Russian troops were sent in to defend against the "genocide" of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, which he says is full of Nazis.

Sweeping sanctions have been imposed on Russia by the West, which the Kremlin has branded a declaration of economic war by the US and its allies.

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