Kinzhal

The Kinzhal ('Dagger') is a Russian air-launched hypersonic Ballistic missile carried by modified MiG-31K and Tu-22M3 aircraft. With a range of up to 2,000 km and a speed exceeding Mach 10, it was marketed by the Kremlin as unstoppable before Ukraine's Patriot system achieved the first confirmed Kinzhal intercept in May 2023. The missile carries either conventional or nuclear warheads; all documented uses in Ukraine have been conventional. It is used against underground facilities, ammunition depots, and infrastructure where blast penetration is required.

Two Kinzhal aero-Ballistic Missiles were fired in the 24 May 2026 barrage on Kyiv, the most destructive single attack on the city of the full-scale war. The salvo of 690 weapons also included 2 Oreshnik intermediate-range Ballistic Missiles (the first dual Oreshnik launch) and 3 Zircon hypersonic Cruise Missiles, making it Russia's largest combined-hypersonic strike of the conflict.

The Kinzhal's role in the barrage illustrates its function as a routine saturation weapon rather than a reserve asset: its primary value is forcing Ukrainian air defenders to sequence intercept attempts against multiple simultaneous hypersonic threats. Each Kinzhal intercept costs Ukraine expensive PAC-3 MSE rounds; Russia's strategy is to exhaust Ukrainian air defence stocks faster than they can be replenished. The Oreshnik missiles fired in the same barrage are assessed as uninterceptable by current Ukrainian Patriot batteries, which compounds the pressure on Ukraine's air defence allocation decisions. Russia has not acknowledged Kinzhal losses to Ukrainian interception.