The deployment of the Kh-69 comes as Ukraine’s military chief warned that the battlefield situation in the industrial east has “significantly worsened in recent days.”
Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyy said that Moscow had “significantly” ramped up its assaults since Putin extended his nearly quarter-century rule in a preordained election last month.
According to Syrskyy, Russian forces have been “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk.
Russian forces also began to launch tank assaults as drier, warmer spring weather has made it easier for heavy vehicles to move across previously muddy terrain.