Ukrainian air defense systems were unable to counter some Russian Kinzhal missiles, according to presidential adviser Volodymyr Zelenskyi, following a large-scale attack by Moscow on Thursday, CNN reported.

A Kinjal missile during exercises in February 2022Photo: Profimedia

In total, 84 missiles were fired at Ukrainian infrastructure, including six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, which have the ability to bypass Kyiv’s air defense system, the Ukrainian military reported.

“They use hypersonic missiles. They use new types of weapons and see how our air defense systems can cope,” said Oleksandr Rodnyanskyi, Zelenskyi’s adviser on economic issues. “I’m not doing well enough,” he said.

Rodnyansky noted that what Russia considers to be tactical, economic and political goals are actually “economic terrorism.”

“They are sending a very strong signal to everyone in Ukraine – and perhaps to some of our refugees outside of Ukraine – that life is very far from returning to normal, even though there has been more calm in recent weeks,” he said.

That could force refugees to stay away and businesses to stop investing in the country, Rodnyanski said.

“It’s a matter of managing expectations and showing that this is a long game and that they’ve been trying to plan this war for years,” Rodnyanski added.

The Russian armed forces on Thursday were the first to launch 6 hypersonic Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” (“Dagger”) missiles over Ukraine in their new “retaliation” attack, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

“The enemy used a wide range of weapons. Why does he do this? To divert the attention of air defense,” Colonel Yuriy Ignat, the spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on television.

The Kh-22 is a powerful anti-ship missile that Russia has also used against ground targets in Ukraine. They are considered to be extremely inaccurate if used for this purpose, putting large numbers of civilians at risk of death.

The Chief of the General Staff of the French Armed Forces, Thierry Burckhard, said that the hypersonic missiles at the disposal of the Russian military are not as accurate as they are praised in Moscow.

In any case, the main characteristic of a hypersonic missile is its “increased ability to penetrate defense systems”, which “poses a real threat”. This is what Kinzhal was unable to do in Ukraine, but in the future it could become a real threat,” General Burkhard concluded on this topic.