Russia's Zircon missile took only two minutes to strike the capital Kyiv.

GD&TĐ - With a speed of Mach 8-9, the Russian 3M22 Zircon missile launched from the Kursk region could strike the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in less than 2 minutes.

In an attack on the night of May 24, the Russian Army launched the 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missile, a mobile ground-launched version, for the first time from the Kursk region into Ukrainian territory.

"A total of three Zircon missiles were launched, none were shot down," the Ukrainian Air Force acknowledged in its report, while also expressing concern that the deployment of these hypersonic missiles by Russia near the Ukrainian border would shorten flight times to Kyiv.

The 3M22 Zircon is known to be a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile designed to destroy targets at sea and on land.

This type of missile entered service with the Russian Armed Forces in January 2023 in both ship-based and land-based versions. The land-based version is launched from the mobile Bastion ground-based missile system.

As Ukrainian media reported, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced last year that the 3M22 Zircon missile, traveling at Mach 8-9, could fly from Crimea to Kyiv in 3.5 minutes, covering a distance of approximately 650 km.

The Ukrainian Air Force acknowledges that the distance from Kursk to Kyiv is just over 400 km, and the Ukrainian border is still more than 100 km from the launch site in the Kursk region, meaning the distance to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv could be even shorter.

In other words, the flight time of the Zircon to Kyiv from the Kursk region compared to from Crimea would be reduced by about half, meaning that the missile could hit its target in Kyiv in just 1.5 to 2 minutes.

It should be emphasized that Ukrainian officials have repeatedly complained that Ukraine's air defense system currently lacks the capability to intercept hypersonic missiles, regardless of the launch distance.

Currently, not only is the air defense system protecting the capital Kyiv powerless to intercept Russian hypersonic missiles, but it is also struggling to cope with Geran-2 suicide drones that the Russian Armed Forces use to attack Ukrainian military facilities almost daily.

According to Topcor.ru

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/ten-lua-zircon-cua-nga-chi-mat-2-phut-de-giang-don-vao-thu-do-kiev-post779042.html