Russia claims use of hypersonic missile in Ukraine for first time as Zelenskyy urges peace talks

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ITV News Correspondent Geraint Vincent reports on the ongoing bombardment of Ukraine by Russian forces as the war continues to take a devastating toll on civilians

Russia has claimed it has used its latest hypersonic missile for the first time in combat during its offensive in Ukraine.

Major General Igor Konashenkov said the hypersonic missiles, known as Kinzhal, destroyed an underground warehouse storing missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Konashenkov also said that the Russian forces used the anti-ship missile system Bastion to strike Ukrainian military facilities near the Black Sea port of Odesa. Russia first used the weapon during its military campaign in Syria in 2016.

According to Russian officials, the Kinzhal, carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) and flies at 10 times the speed of sound.

A Ukrainian military official confirmed to a local news outlet that Russian forces carried out a missile strike Friday on a missile and ammunition warehouse in the Delyatyn settlement of the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine.

However Ukraine’s Air Forces spokesman Yurii Ihnat told the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper on Saturday that it is yet to be confirmed whether the missile the Russians used was indeed the county’s latest hypersonic missile, or some other kind.

Will the ferocity of Russia’s military tactics eventually force Ukraine into signing a deal? Geraint Vincent explains

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have fired at eight cities and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, using aviation, rocket and heavy artillery.

Ukraine’s National Police said in a statement on Telegram Saturday that at least 37 residential buildings and infrastructure facilities were damaged; dozens of civilians were killed and injured as a result of the attacks.

The Russian military were firing at Mariupol, Avdiivka, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk, Novoselydivka, Verkhnotoretske, Krymka, and Stepne.

The statement said that “among the civilian objects that Russia destroyed are multistory and private houses, a school, a kindergarten, a museum, a shopping center and administrative buildings.”

A rocket attack on a barracks in Mykolaiv left at least 50 Ukrainian soldiers dead.

Kyiv northwestern suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Moshchun have also been under fire on Saturday.

This satellite image shows damaged and burning apartment buildings and stores in Mariupol, Ukraine. Credit: Satellite image © 2022 Maxar Technologies

The Kyiv regional administration reported that the city of Slavutich north of the capital was “completely isolated,” and that Russian military equipment was spotted in the region northeast and east of Kyiv.

Police of the Kyiv region have confirmed that seven people were killed and five more injured in a Friday mortar attack on Makariv, a town some 31 miles west of Kyiv.

The UN Human Rights office said that at least 847 civilians had been killed and 1,399 injured in Ukraine as of Friday, with the actual total likely to be much higher.

Local residents carry water from the food warehouse on the outskirts of Mariupol.

The strategic port city of Mariupol remains the focal point, as Ukrainian forces battle Russian troops for control of the one of the largest steel plants in Europe.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been battling over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol , Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Saturday.

“One of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is actually being destroyed,” Denysenko said.

The southern city of Mykolaiv has been another subject of intense bombardment – 40 Ukrainian soldiers are known to have died when their barracks were targeted by Russian air strikes on Friday.

Missiles are understood to have been launched from such close-range that there was no time to activate air sirens.

But, despite incoming attacks, Ukrainian civilians were being evacuated on Saturday via humanitarian corridors – Ukrainian and Russian officials have agreed to establish 10 corridors for bringing aid in and residents out.

Ukrainian presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko released video on Saturday showing people being evacuated from Zaporizhzhia and Severodonetsk.

Several corridors will be in the Kyiv region and in the Luhansk region, and one will be set up from besieged Mariupol.

New images reveal the ruins of the bombed theater where Ukrainian civilians in the encircled port were sheltering when a strike hit on Wednesday.

It is thought that hundreds of people could still be trapped under the rubble.

The devastated drama theater in Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s plight. Credit: Maxar Technologies

Vladamir Putin is intent on “destroying” Ukraine, and “erasing it from the face of the Earth” – the Ukrainian MP, Lesia Vasylenko told ITV News

Deputy Ukrainian Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday that Ukraine has evacuated 190,000 civilians from frontline zones via humanitarian corridors since the invasion started over three weeks ago. She said corridors in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions were operating on Saturday, though a discussed corridor to Mariupol was only partially functional.

The UN migration agency fighting has displaced nearly 6.5 million people inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million refugees who have already fled the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said now is the time for Moscow to begin peace talks in earnest to avoid incurring higher losses in its invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday he called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow.

“I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk,” he said in a video address.

“The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover.”

Watch special ITV News coverage on the War in Ukraine:

He went on to draw a stark image of the purported Russian losses in military hostilities by evoking images of dead bodies from the numbers of demonstrators that showed up on Friday at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium to mark eight years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“Just picture for yourself that in that stadium in Moscow there are 14,000 dead bodies and tens of thousands more injured and maimed. Those are the Russian costs throughout the invasion,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president said Russian forces are blockading the largest Ukraine cities with the goal of creating such miserable conditions that Ukrainians will cooperate.

The Russian military has suffered heavy losses during its offensive, US intelligence says that 7,000 are dead and 20,000 injured – which represents one in 10 of the invasion force.

There are reports that a fifth Russian general has been killed in Kherson – the highest general to be killed – in the first city that the Russians say they gained.

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