Russia’s Kinzhal Missile, the Dagger at the Heart of Putin’s Propaganda

The official newspaper of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, Krasnaya Zvezda, falsely claimed their forces had launched its Kinzhal hypersonic missile from a Su-34 fighter jet onto Ukraine for the first time on Monday, January 13, 2025. 

Reports of this “new” carrier upgrade began circulating worldwide. Krasnaya Zvezda later reported that they had “made a gross error and used unverified information published on a third-party internet resource.”

This is the second time that these rumors have been spread by Russian state media. Tass made the same claim in September 2023, citing a vague “defense official.” They failed to report a specific time or place of the incident but stated that the crew of the Su-34 who had carried out the launch would be receiving state awards. 

 Logic and Russian propaganda have always existed in parallel planes and have never intersected.

Defense Express

The Kinzhal missile also referred to as the “Dagger,” has been historically praised by Moscow as one of a series of "invincible" weapons. “It is highly effective and invulnerable to Ukraine’s air defenses,” Chief of Russia’s General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov, said. 

Putin has persistently gloated over Russia’s possession of hypersonic weapons. The BBC reported that Putin had mentioned Russian hypersonic weapons at least 70 or more times in public speeches from 2018 to 2024. Moscow has not only been using their infamous “red lines” and nuclear threats to put pressure on Ukraine and the West but is also attempting poorly executed “hypersonic missile blackmail.” 

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The Kinzhal missile — “outdated Cold War technology”

The Kinzhal Kh-47M2 is a hypersonic missile that has a 500kg warhead and can reach speeds of up to 14,688 km/ph. The Kinzhal is designed to deliver precision strikes on stationary targets or naval vessels, including aircraft carriers.

The missile can fly at an altitude of approximately 20 kilometers, making it challenging, but not impossible, for modern air defense systems to intercept. The Kinzhal is deployed exclusively from MiG-31K aircraft and has not been fired from Su-34 fighter jets, as Russian reports have claimed. 

Experts in 2022 said that this missile was a sign of Russian showmanship, questioning its accuracy while noting that “it’s not a game changer” for Russia in their invasion of Ukraine. 

Analysts criticized the Kinzhal as “outdated 1980s Cold War technology that is not genuinely hypersonic in nature.” Russia’s designation of the Kinzhal as a “hypersonic missile” is somewhat misleading, as nearly all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speeds at some point during their flight, the Missile Defense Project Center for Strategic and International Studies noted.

Ukraine has shot down several Kinzhal missiles. In May 2023, Kyiv shot down six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in one night alone, during a barrage of 18 missiles fired by Russia onto Ukraine.

“All Kinzhal missiles launched towards the capital of Ukraine since the announcement that the Patriot air defense missile system became operational have been successfully intercepted. No ballistic target has reached its destination within the capital of our country since May 2023. Over 20 'Kinzhal' missiles were launched towards Kyiv, and all of them were successfully intercepted," Colonel of the Air Force and commander of the 96th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, Serhii Yaremenko said in an interview with Ukrinform.

Ukraine’s interception tattered Moscow’s reputation and the Kinzhal’s ability to evade air defense, proving it not to be so “invincible” after all. 

Could the Kinzhal be launched from the Su-34 fighter jet?

Defense Express, Ukrainian military analysis experts, highlighted several issues with Russia’s claim that the Kinzhal could be launched from their Su-34 fighter jets. For the MiG-31 to launch the Kinzhal, almost all "extra" onboard equipment is removed and the aircraft can lift only one Kinzhal missile at a time. 

The Kinzhal missile itself has a launch weight of 4.2 tonnes. The MiG-31 has a declared combat load of 9 tonnes, whereas the Su-34, when fully fuelled, has a declared combat load of 4 tonnes, according to Defense Express. 

Therefore, given the combat load characteristics of the Su-34, it’s unlikely that it's even theoretically possible to be a Kinzhal carrier. Defense Express summarized that the possible launch of the "Dagger" from the Su-34 is more of a propaganda exaggeration.

Russia’s hypersonic secrets

Putin has held fast to his claims that Russia’s hypersonic missiles are unstoppable, one of his go-to defense topics since the early 2000s. Putin began publically announcing Russia’s “hypersonic” weapons like the Kinzhal and Avangard in 2018. 

Since then, more than a dozen scientists working on Russia’s hypersonic program have been accused of treason and jailed for leaking state secrets. Russian treason trials are tried behind closed doors, so it’s not clear what they are exactly accused of. 

Scientists who had been arrested were not involved in any weapons development but rather the research of “aerodynamics of hypersonic flows of metal,” Evgeny Smirnov from the First Department community of lawyers and human rights activists told the BBC. Research and information that other scientists had, in some cases, already repeatedly described in open-source publications and not “state secrets” at all. 

“Scientists are still expected to publish internationally and collaborate with foreign colleagues. Meanwhile, Russia’s security services (FSB) think contact with foreign scientists and writing for foreign journals is a betrayal of the Motherland," a colleague of one of the arrested scientists, who requested anonymity, told the BBC. 

In one experiment, a rounded cone was used to achieve turbulent airflow. The FSB regarded this as secret information as it resembled a missile, and the scientist, Vladimir Kudryavtsev, was arrested. He died before his case reached the courts. 

Smirnov believes that the FSB has been jailing scientists "to feed (Putin’s) ego, to show that Russian missiles are the best and that they are being stolen." The FSB reports directly to Putin about every case of treason against scientists, Smirnov said. 

Sergei Davidis, who leads work supporting Russian political prisoners at the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Memorial Human Rights Centre, called the wave of arrests an "atmosphere of spy mania and isolationism," especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also said that he believes the FSB is keen to "build up its reporting statistics through the fabrication of cases."

Both the arbitrary arrests of scientists and false media reports surrounding the Kinzhal hypersonic missile play into Russia’s propaganda war machine. This is fuelling Putin’s narrative that Russia is leading the world in hypersonic missile capability in an attempt to create fear among their Western counterparts. However, Ukraine’s Defense Forces continue to shred Russia’s boasting efforts by successfully eliminating Russia’s hypersonic missiles while taking on propaganda media reports head-on.