Russia increasingly using repurposed S-400 training missiles to bombard Ukraine, Reuters reports

Russia is increasingly resorting to repurposed S-400 training missiles to strike Ukrainian cities, according to Reuters, citing figures from Ukraine's General Prosecutor's Office. In July, Russia fired 87 of these RM48U training missiles compared to 10 in June and 14 in May. While these missiles are less accurate than purpose-built ballistic missiles, they are still capable of inflicting significant damage.

Russia employs these repurposed missiles to maintain pressure on Ukraine while conserving their more valuable ballistic missiles like the Iskanders, KN-23s, and Zircons. Senior analyst Sidharth Kaushal from London think tank RUSI explained that this approach allows Russia to "husk the more capable missiles they have" for the winter when they would prefer to focus on their ballistic missile campaign.

RM48Us made up more than half of the 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles launched at Ukraine in July and early August, as reported by Reuters. The S-400, for which these training missiles were originally designed, is an air defense system capable of striking targets in ground-attack mode. Ukraine's defense against ballistic missiles primarily relies on the American-supplied PAC-3 Patriot interceptors.

However, these interceptors are in short supply due to Russia's intensified missile attacks and the U.S. war in the Persian Gulf depleting global Patriot interceptor stocks.