Russia’s new Zircon hypersonic missiles ‘very difficult to intercept’ | World | News
Russia has added a formidable new missile to its arsenal, one that is reportedly extremely challenging to intercept owing to its remarkable speed.
This was disclosed by Pavlo Lakiychuk, head of security programmes at the Centre for Global Studies Strategy XXI and a first-rank captain in the Ukrainian Navy reserve.
The military analyst claims that the Kh-22 strikes and Russia‘s deployment of Zircon missiles share striking similarities. Russian forces are now making less frequent use of Tu-22 bombers armed with Kh-22 missiles, despite these weapons previously striking both Vinnytsia and Okhmatdyt.
Lakiychuk explained that both the Tu-22 bomber and the X-22 missile were originally engineered to destroy aircraft carriers. “If you attach a thermonuclear warhead to the missile, a megaton explosion will occur, and it doesn’t matter where it hits – what part of the ocean – everything around for 30-40 km will turn into the epicenter of a nuclear explosion. It should be noted that the Tu-22 has not shot down a single aircraft carrier, but now they are terrorizing the Ukrainian people,” the expert says.
The Zircon or “Tsirkon” missiles are rapid yet imprecise weapons that prove exceptionally difficult to neutralise. For this reason, Russian forces deploy them alongside ballistic missiles.
Lakiychuk noted that the reduced number of missile carriers available to Russia is a positive development. Unlike the Kh-22, the Zircon represents a far more recent addition to Russia’s military capabilities.
“Zircon is part of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation, and ‘Bastion’ – land-based launchers – are in the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. However, our guys have already destroyed 1 or 2 launchers from this division. Let’s hope that they will destroy all the others as well,” the expert added.
This comes in the wake of a series of long-range Ukrainian strikes on targets deep inside Russian territory on Wednesday, forming part of Kyiv’s broader strategy to raise the cost of the conflict for the Kremlin by hitting military and energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that his country’s forces had struck several military and energy installations, amongst them a weapons factory supplying components for Russian missiles and drones.
In a social media post, Zelensky revealed that the plant in Cheboksary — situated more than 560 miles from the front line in the Chuvashiya region — had been hit by Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo long-range missiles.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed that air defences had intercepted and shot down 326 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The regional head of Chuvashiya, Oleg Nikolayev, confirmed the missile strike but declined to elaborate further. According to online news outlet Astra, the attack targeted the VNIIR-Progress company, a manufacturer of drone antennas.
Zelensky further revealed that Ukrainian forces launched an assault on a refinery in Russia’s Samara region, where Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed that drone strikes had caused significant damage to numerous industrial facilities, leaving three people injured.
Astra broadcast footage of a substantial blaze at the Samara refinery, though Fedorishchev declined to specify which facilities had been struck.
