UK’s Defence Ministry: Russia increases use of air defence missiles for ground attacks

The Russian army has increased its use of air defence missiles in a secondary ground attack mode because of critical shortages of dedicated missiles.

“Russia has increased its use of air defence missiles in a secondary ground attack mode because of critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles,” the British Defence Ministry posted on Twitter.

As noted, Russia has almost certainly deployed S-300 and S-400 strategic air defence systems, designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles at long ranges, near Ukraine from the start of the invasion.

“These weapons have relatively small warheads, designed to destroy aircraft. They could pose a significant threat against troops in the open and light buildings but are unlikely to penetrate hardened structures,” reads the report.

The UK’s Defence Ministry points out that there is a high chance of these weapons missing their intended targets and causing civilian casualties because the missiles are not optimised for this role, and their crews will have little training for such missions.

As reported, the Russian army has already fired more than 3,000 cruise missiles at Ukraine.

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