Greater than 80 missiles in addition to eight kamikaze drones hit a number of targets throughout Ukraine.

An enormous missile assault was launched by Russia on the Ukrainian power infrastructure and different targets throughout Ukraine on Mar. 9, 2023. Kiev, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Lviv and Odessa Oblasts had been reportedly hit: six individuals had been killed within the strikes and a whole lot of 1000’s left with out warmth or electrical energy within the largest assault since Feb. 16, 2023.

In line with Ukraine’s chief commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Russia launched 81 missiles and eight Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones. Among the many weapons used within the huge bombardment, six Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles, 20x Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles, 28 x Kh-101/Kh-555 air-launched cruise missiles, and 13x S-300s in surface-to-surface mode: all kinds of munitions extraordinarily troublesome to cease.

Ukraine’s Air Pressure Command says Russia launched 81 missiles in a single day:
– 28 x Kh-101/Kh-555 air-launched cruise
– 20 x Kalibr sea-launched cruise
– 6 x Kh-22 air-launched cruise (they’re outdated)
– 6 x Kh-47 Kinzhal
– 2 x Kh-31P (anti-radar)
– 6 x KH-59 (TV-guided)
– 13 x S-300 SAMs

— Chris Partridge (@Chris1603) March 9, 2023

A complete of 34 missiles and 4 drones had been intercepted, the Ukrainian Air Pressure stated.

Stays of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile downed by Ukrainian air defenses exterior of Pryluky, Chernihiv Oblast. pic.twitter.com/Wz2TmALCO8

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 9, 2023

Probably the most stunning side of right this moment’s assault might be the usage of six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Up to now, only a handful of assaults have been carried out utilizing the Kinzhal missile, the primary of these was kind of one year ago. As now we have already reported up to now, Kinzhal is principally an air-launched Iskander-M SRBM (short-range ballistic missile) that makes use of a MiG-31K Foxhound or Tu-22M3 Backfire belongings as an air-breathing first stage to extend its vary: the truth is, it’s really not a “hypersonic weapon” within the sense that it’s an air-breathing missile based on scramjet technology and, as a ballistic missile, it flies at hypersonic velocity with a reported cruise missile-like flat flight profile.

In line with Russians and reference sources, the Kinzhal missile has a variety of 1,200 miles (roughly 2,000 kilometers) and a high velocity of Mach 10. Furthermore, it maintains some capability to maneuver all through its efficiency envelope together with at hypersonic velocity. If correct, these capabilities may make the Kinzhal troublesome to intercept by anti-missile programs.

The variety of Kinzhal missiles Russia is ready to area in addition to the precise capabilities of the missile are nonetheless debated with some analysts saying that it isn’t as superior as Russia claims. Is the usage of the a lot hyped and feared hypersonic missile an indication that Russia has now adequate stockpiles to begin utilizing them in vital numbers or, quite the opposite, an indication that it’s working out of shares of different varieties of ammunition?

Regardless of the future will probably be, right this moment’s assault exhibits Moscow is ready to hearth volleys of Kinzhal missiles with the Ukrainian air protection programs unable to cease any of them.

In line with the Ukrainian Air Pressure together with the six Kinzhal-carrier MiG-31K fighter jets, the missile barrage was launched by ten Tu-95 strategic bombers, seven Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, eight Su-35 multi-role fighter jets, and three Kalibr cruise missile carriers within the Black Sea.

The assault additionally precipitated an influence loss on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the most important in Europe. Because the nuclear reactors want fixed energy to run cooling programs to keep away from a meltdown, the ability loss, that lasted nearly half of the day, precipitated widespread concern of a possible nuclear disaster.

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse army aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, protecting aviation, protection, warfare, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with totally different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a personal pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.