Russia would have run out of missiles for sustained attacks against Ukraine, this after launching several thousand against the country, many in residential blocks, commercial centers, and other civilian areas, and now it would use air defense systems for bombings, just like this military technique had another purpose.
The use of anti-aircraft defense systems for attacks against Ukraine puts even more people at risk because missiles of this type were designed for aerial guidance, not having ground guidance systems, and the operators of the systems that launch them have no training for operations of this kind.
“Russia has increased its use of air defense missiles in a secondary ground attack mode due to a critical shortage of dedicated ground attack missiles. Russia has almost certainly deployed S-300 and S-400 strategic air defense systems, designed to shoot down long-range aircraft and missiles, near Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
These weapons have relatively small warheads designed to destroy aircraft. They could pose a significant threat against troops in open and light buildings, but are unlikely to penetrate fortified structures. There is a high chance that these weapons will miss their intended targets and cause civilian casualties, as the missiles are not optimized for this role and their crews will have little training for such missions.”
Latest Defense Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 22 July 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/dzM1pWtGbD
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/36GGbx7Tfu
- Ministry of Defense 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 22, 2022
