Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that Russia will begin flying fighter jet patrol missions in the eastern Black Sea using MiG-31 interceptors armed with X-47M2 Kinjal (Dagger) air-launched ballistic missiles, notes. UK Ministry of Defence.

The Kremlin leader justified the decision by the apparent intensification of the US naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, suggesting that these ships are within range of the Kinzhal missiles, which the Russians say can hit targets up to 2,000 kilometers away.

The statement is consistent with Russia’s typical rhetoric aimed at its domestic audience, which says that the West is the aggressor and presents Russian activities as necessary for the defense of the state, the British ministry said in the latest assessment.

“Putin’s direct mention of the Kinjal missile and its capabilities was almost certainly done for strategic messaging purposes to demonstrate that Russia remains capable of producing and operating the latest weapons despite the conflict in Ukraine,” the quoted source said.

“Theoretically, these missiles are very powerful”

However, “the Kinjal missile actually remains at the stage of combat testing, and its characteristics in Ukraine are still unsatisfactory.”

“In theory it is extremely capable, on paper capable of flying at hypersonic speeds and evading modern air defense systems, but it is almost certain that significant improvements are needed in how Russia uses it to achieve its potential,” British experts say. .

It will be recalled that on Wednesday Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered the Russian Aerospace Forces to begin constant patrolling of the airspace over the Black Sea with fighter jets armed with Kinzhal (“Dagger”) missiles, TASS reports.

“On my instructions, the Russian Aerospace Forces conduct constant patrols in the neutral zone of the airspace over the Black Sea. Our MiG-31s ​​are armed with Kinjal systems,” he said at a press conference after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Putin said he was only “briefing” on the decision, but again accused the United States of stepping up intervention in the war in Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed a day earlier that Washington had supplied his country with ATACMS long-range attack missiles.