The Pentagon said yesterday that there were no indications that Russia had used laser weapons in Ukraine, following claims by Moscow that it had begun using a new generation of powerful lasers to destroy enemy drones.

- We have no indications for the use of lasers, and not for laser weapons in Ukraine. There was no confirmation, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.

Russia's deputy prime minister for military development, Yuri Borisov, said earlier this week that Moscow had developed a new generation of laser weapons that fired at its targets, a prototype called the Zadira used in Ukraine.

Almost nothing is known to the public about Zadira, but in 2017 Russian media reported that the state-owned nuclear company Rosatom had helped develop this type of weapon.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mockingly compared reports of Russian lasers in Ukraine to so-called miraculous weapons presented by Nazi Germany in an attempt to avert defeat in World War II.

- We are witnessing that in the third month of the full war, Russia is trying to find its "miraculous weapon". This clearly shows the complete failure of their mission, Zelenski said on Wednesday.