Russia claims it deployed nuclear-capable hypersonic missile

Russia’s defence ministry said Saturday that its nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles obliterated an ammunition depot in western Ukraine, as embattled President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent plea for “meaningful and fair” peace talks as the strategic port city of Mariupol was on the verge of falling to the invaders.

According to multiple reports, high-tech Kinzhal missiles carried by MiG-31 fighter jets destroyed a large underground warehouse for missiles and aircraft ammunition Friday in the village of Delyatyn, near the western Ivano-Frankivs region of Ukraine, according to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.

Officials from the United States acknowledged the use of hypersonic missiles on Saturday, telling CNN that they were tracked in real time as they approached the former Soviet Union.

The latest bombing occurred as thousands of citizens rushed to evacuate Mariupol, a port city that has been under siege for weeks. Russia, according to Zelensky, is attempting to starve the cities of his country into submission.

In a video broadcast overnight, Zelensky accused the Kremlin of causing “a humanitarian catastrophe” on purpose and called for another face-to-face meeting with Putin to prevent further carnage.

According to Zelensky, Russian soldiers were blockading the main cities with the intention of making life so difficult for Ukrainians that they would submit.

But he warned that Russia would pay the ultimate price. “The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s costs will be so high that you will not be able to rise again for several generations,” he said.

Zelensky’s remarks were made in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s massive rally in Moscow on Friday. Despite the fact that the rally was ostensibly conducted to support Russia’s soldiers, many of the tens of thousands who filled the Luzhini Stadium said they were “forced” to attend, according to sources.

The president compared the 200,000 people who attended the rally to the number of Russian troops involved in the invasion.

“Imagine for yourself that there are 14,000 dead bodies in that stadium in Moscow, and tens of thousands more injured and maimed,” Zelensky stated in a video taken outside the presidential office in Kyiv. “Those are the Russian costs for the invasion as a whole.”