Russia has escalated use of air defense weapons, says UK
- Air defense weapons likely represent a substantial danger to soldiers in open areas and light structures
The UK Ministry of Defense in its intelligence report said that Russia has increased its use of air defense missiles in a secondary ground attack mode because of critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles.
“Russia has almost certainly deployed S-300 and S-400 strategic air defense systems, designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles at long ranges, near Ukraine from the start of the invasion,” the ministry said in the report.
These weapons might represent a substantial danger to soldiers in open areas and light structures, but they are unlikely to penetrate reinforced structures.
Because the missiles are not optimized for the role, and their pilots will have limited training for such missions that there is a substantial risk that these defense systems may miss their intended targets and cause civilian fatalities.
Meanwhile, “Vitaly Kim, governor of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, said that Russian forces had used seven air defense missiles to strike infrastructure, energy facilities, and storage areas,” the MoD said in a tweet.
Picture Credits: Reuters
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