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Toward the end of March 2023, statements made by pro-Russian social media accounts — and even Russian state television — asserted with great pride that a hypersonic Kinzhal missile had taken out a secret underground NATO command post in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. While the depth of the purported bunker has varied wildly, the claims are unified by their assertions that:

• A Kinzhal missile fired from a Russian fighter jet took out a secret underground NATO command post in Lviv, Ukraine.
• The secret base was used by NATO to control anti-aircraft systems.
• Up to 300 people were located in and/or died in the bunker.
• Most of them were Americans and Poles.
• Among the dead were 40 high ranking foreigners.

The earliest English-language iteration of this claim Snopes has identified came from a March 1, 2023, item published on an Australian website, Cairns Daily, which publishes a wide array of misinformation. A summary of Ukraine war updates authored by a purported "Cossack Colonel Yuri Kominyenko" on that site included this claim:

In western Ukraine a Russian Forces Kinzhal struck a bunker extending to 80 metres deep. The RF believes this bunker near Lvov [Lviv] was a NATO strategic command point used to control anti-aircraft systems. It's still early days but the RF assumes there were up to 300 personnel in the bunker, 40 of which were high ranking foreign specialists, hence we can expect 40 body bags heading west in due course.

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