In what may be the first use of hypersonic missiles in a theater of war ever, Russia announced that its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were used Friday for the first time to destroy a weapons storage site in the country's west, the defense ministry said.

"The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition" in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region," the Russian Defence Ministry said Saturday.

State news agency RIA Novosti said it was the first use of the Kinzhal hypersonic weapons during what Moscow calls a "special military operation" in pro-Western Ukraine.

A defense ministry spokesperson declined to comment when reached by the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed the Kinzhal (Dagger) missile "an ideal weapon" that flies at 10 times the speed of sound and can overcome air-defense systems.

The Kinzhal missile was one of an array of new weapons Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address in 2018.

Deliatyn, a village in the foothills of the picturesque Carpathian mountains, is located outside the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. The region of Ivano-Frankivsk shares a 50-kilometer (30-mile) long border with NATO member Romania.