Ukraine: first assessment in Mariupol, hypersonic missiles ... Update on this 24th day of Russian offensive

The fighting continues, all over Ukraine.

For the second time since the invasion, Russia struck near the Polish border on Friday, bombing an aircraft maintenance factory near Lviv airport.

Despite a new phase of talks - which led Russia to talk about a "rapprochement" of positions, while the Ukrainian president posted a video last night saying that it was time to "get together" to "discuss" seriously the peace - the conflict has taken on a new dimension.

This Saturday, Moscow claimed to have used hypersonic missiles, a first.

Update on this 24th day of Russian offensive.

First assessment for Mariupol

Three days after the bombardment which hit a theater in Mariupol in which civilians were sheltered, an initial assessment was drawn up by the authorities.

The city council of this port city has reported, at this stage, at least one serious injury, but no deaths.

More than 130 people have been rescued from the building but "hundreds" of others remain under the rubble, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.

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War in Ukraine: a theater housing hundreds of civilians bombed in Mariupol

Russia, claiming not to be responsible for this bombardment, argued that the theater, in which hundreds of inhabitants had taken refuge, had been destroyed by the Ukrainian nationalist Azov battalion.

Elsewhere, Putin's army is advancing in Mariupol.

She said on Friday that she had managed to enter and fight in the city center alongside troops from the separatist "republic" of Donetsk.

The capture of this city would be an important turning point in the war and would allow Russia to ensure territorial continuity between its forces coming from annexed Crimea (south) and the troops from Donbass (east).

hypersonic missiles

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it had used "Kinjal" ("dagger" in Russian) hypersonic missiles the day before to destroy an underground weapons warehouse in western Ukraine.

Russia had, until then, never reported the use of this ballistic missile in the two conflicts where it is belligerent, Ukraine and Syria.

He has been deployed numerous times in exercises since the first successful test in 2018. According to the state agency Ria Novosti, his employment is indeed a first.

This type of missiles, very maneuverable, defies all air defense systems, according to Moscow.

During the tests, these weapons would all have hit their targets at a distance of up to more than 1,000 km, assures the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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"On March 18, the Kinjal aeronautical complex with its hypersonic ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse of missiles and ammunition of the Ukrainian army aviation in the locality of Delyatin, Ivano-Frankivsk region", Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced.

The “Kinjal” hypersonic ballistic missiles and the “Zircon” cruise missiles belong to a family of new weapons developed by Russia and which Vladimir Putin qualifies as “invincible”.