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

Russia increasingly uses repurposed S-400 training missiles to strike Ukrainian cities, Reuters reports, citing figures compiled by military analysts at Ukraine's General Prosecutor's Office.

Russia fired 87 of the RM48U training missiles at Ukraine in July, compared to 10 in June and 14 in May. The RM48U is significantly less accurate than a purpose-built ballistic missile but still capable of causing significant damage.

Russia uses such repurposed training missiles, originally designed to serve as aerial targets in military training, to keep up pressure on Ukraine and conserve stocks of their more valuable ballistic missiles, an analyst interviewed by Reuters said.

"Their use allows the Russians to husband the more capable missiles they have, the Iskanders, but also the KN-23s and the Zircons, for winter when they would want to really lean into their ballistic missile campaign," Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at London think tank RUSI, told Reuters.

RM48Us accounted for more than half of the 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired at Ukraine in July and early August, according to data collected by military analysts at the General Prosecutor's Office, cited by Reuters.

The S-400, for which the training missiles were originally built, is an air defense system that entered service in August 2007. Like its predecessor, the S-300, it can also strike targets in ground-attack mode.

Ukraine’s sole defense against ballistic missiles is the American-supplied PAC-3 Patriot. Patriot interceptors have been in short supply amid intensified Russian ballistic missile attacks and the U.S. war in the Persian Gulf draining global Patriot interceptor stocks.