Russian missiles test Ukraine's defence as winter bites
Russia continues its relentless missile bombardment and drone attacks on cities in Ukraine. Although the Ukrainians are successfully intercepting drones and cruise missiles, ballistic missiles still pose a significant threat to various targets.
During the summer months, the Russians stockpiled Shahed drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles to target Ukrainian sites now, in the winter months. In the most recent attack on 26 November 2024, Ukrainian defence forces successfully intercepted 76 out of 188 Shahed drones, but none of the four Iskander-M ballistic missiles were shot down.
The weakness of Ukrainian anti-ballistic defence — lack of replacement for Soviet-era systems
Ukrainian air defence has depleted its stock of missiles for Russia's medium-range S-300P and S-300W systems. The Patriot and SAMP/T batteries supplied by Western allies are insufficient (six and two, respectively). At present, Bulgaria and Greece are the only potential suppliers of missiles for the S-300 systems.
These systems can engage ballistic missiles only within approximately 40 kilometres from the launch site, and the eight batteries currently supplied by the West are inadequate to replace what Ukraine possessed before Russia's full-scale invasion.
Elusive Iskander-M missiles — their secret
Iskander-M missiles, powered by solid fuel, first ascend into space and then descend to Earth, reaching speeds exceeding Mach 7 (over 2,000 metres per second). This makes them extremely difficult to intercept, and only a few air defence systems worldwide are capable of eliminating such targets.
This capability, coupled with both satellite and inertial navigation, enables them to deliver a warhead weighing approximately 500 kilograms up to 500 kilometres with precision of a few metres. This includes various warhead variants, such as a fragmentation-blast for destroying buildings or fortifications, a penetrative type for destroying bunkers, or a cluster variant for targeting large areas with bomblets.
