Russia uses old missiles suggesting that its stock of precision weapons is low

Some of the deadliest Russian missile attacks of the war have fallen on civilian targets in the past two weeks, and many of the attacks have been carried out with obsolete missiles designed for naval operations.

Two of these weapons, Soviet-era Kh-class missiles, crashed into a shopping mall in Kremenchuk on June 27, killing dozens.

The same type of missile crashed into an apartment building in the Black Sea resort of Serhiivka on Friday, killing at least 21 people.

Military analysts say the use of such weapons ancient and inaccuratewhich is rapidly increasing the number of civilian deaths, suggests that Russia may be short of long-range precision missiles, even as Ukraine is starting to receive heavier weapons from NATO.

Soviet Kh-class missiles, designed to target ships, entered the country’s arsenal in the 1960s, and Russia’s dependence on them is proof that it does not have a wealth of more modern weapons at its disposal.

“Russia continues to employ air-launched anti-ship missiles in a secondary ground attack role, possibly due to dwindling stocks of modern and more accurate weapons,” the UK Defense Ministry said in its assessment of 2 July.

Pavel Luzin, a Russian military analyst, said Moscow’s reliance on Kh-class missiles “to terrorize Ukrainian cities from the air serves as further evidence of the fall of stocks of precision ammunition Long range Russian

the Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyhe said on Friday night that Russian forces had launched more than 3,000 missiles against Ukraine in four months of war.

Ukrainian intelligence officials estimated that Russia has so far used 60% of your arsenal of high-precision weapons.

Russia’s increasing use of Kh-class missiles, with a range of between 80 and 321 kilometers, has coincided with growing estimates of Russian military casualties by Western intelligence agencies.

British defense chief Ben Wallace said this last week 25,000 Russian soldiers They had died in the war.

US officials have raised the Russian death toll 15,000.

Recently, the first batch of American-made multiple rocket launchers, called High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, entered the battlefield.

Armed with satellite-guided rockets, they have a range of over 40 miles, greater than anything Ukraine has ever had before.

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