Ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and other weaponry: What Russia uses to attack Ukraine

Contents:

• Shaheds and other drones targeting Ukraine
• Kinzhal, Iskander, and others: Key about missiles
• Time from launch to attack

Shaheds and other drones targeting Ukraine

Shahed-136

The Shahed-136 drones have been active in the Russia-Ukraine war theater since the fall of 2022. These are Iranian-made attack drones, locally manufactured by Russia under the name Geran-2. They can strike targets using pre-set coordinates or operator commands. Launched from ground platforms, they are typically deployed in swarms.

The enemy launches them from occupied Ukrainian territories as well as from its border regions. Ukrainian airspace often witnesses dozens to over a hundred Shahed-type drones in operation. They can fly for up to 24 hours, with a claimed range of about 2,500 km, enabling them to reach any point in Ukraine.

Other specifications include:

• Speed: 185 km/h
• Weight: 200 kg
• Length: 3.5 m
• Wingspan: 2.5 m
• Warhead: Up to 50 kg

Photo: Shahed-136 drone (Getty Images)

A relatively low speed makes it possible to intercept the Shahed-136 using small arms. In recent times, Ukraine’s various branches of air defense forces have achieved an effectiveness of over 90% in shooting them down.

Shahed-131

Also referred to as Geran-1, this drone operates on a similar principle as the Shahed-136, has an identical layout, and is unified in parts and electronics. However, it differs in motor design and other features.

Main characteristics:

• Range: 900 km
• Weight: 135 kg
• Warhead weight: 10-15 kg
• Length: 2.6 m
• Wingspan: 2.2 m

Shahed decoys

During combined attacks, the enemy often uses decoys that mimic Shaheds but have no warheads. Instead, they carry 3D-printed metal balls wrapped in foil. Their main goal is to deceive Ukrainian air defenses, keeping them occupied and forcing them to expend ammunition on these dummy drones.

According to Yurii Ihnat, Acting Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force Command, these decoys now make up nearly half of all drones launched by Russia against Ukraine’s rear areas.

Drones-observers

Russia actively uses reconnaissance drones deep in Ukrainian territory to track down critical targets and guide ballistic missiles. Drones such as Orlan, Zala, and Supercam can penetrate up to 200 km into Ukrainian territory. These drones have enabled Russian forces to target HIMARS systems, Patriot missile launchers, and combat aircraft stationed at airfields.

Kinzhal, Iskander and others: Key about missiles

The main threat comes from Russia’s long-range missiles, which carry warheads weighing several hundred kilograms. Russia uses ballistic and cruise missiles, differing in launch methods, trajectories, and flight times.

Ballistic missiles

Kinzhal

Aero-ballistic missile with claimed capability to carry nuclear warheads. For attacks on Ukraine, they use high-explosive-fragmentation warheads. The missile is often called hypersonic, but this is not true. Launched from the MiG-31K aircraft, they have been used in the Russia-Ukraine war since March 2022.

Photo: carrier with a Kinzhal missile (wikipedia.org)

Key characteristics:

• Claimed speed: Up to 12 Mach (14,688 km/h)
• Maximum altitude: 20 km
• Warhead mass: Up to 500 kg
• Range: Over 2,000 km

Iskander-M missile

A ballistic missile of the ground-based operational and tactical complex. The main purpose is to destroy air and missile defense systems and protected objects.

Key characteristics:

• Range: 50 to 500 km

• Speed: 2,100 m/s

• Warhead mass: 480 kg

Ukraine effectively intercepts ballistic missiles over areas protected by Patriot and SAMP-T systems.

S-300/S-400 missiles

Anti-aircraft missiles, which during the Russian invasion were used to strike ground targets. In this version, they are ineffective at long distances and extremely inaccurate.

According to various estimates, the range of the S-300 can be up to 110-120 km, and the range of the S-400 can be up to 380 km. The weight of the warhead ranges from 140 to 180 kg. As a rule, they are used to attack frontline or border cities. Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sloviansk, and Kramatorsk are particularly affected.

Oniks

Anti-ship ballistic missiles used by Russia for ground strikes, primarily in the regions of Odesa region. They follow a combined trajectory: first rising to 14 km on a ballistic path, then descending to an altitude of 10-15 meters when approaching the target.

Oniks missiles are launched from Bastion complexes in temporarily occupied Crimea. They are considered versatile, as they can be deployed from submarines, ships, and aircraft. Maximum speed reaches up to 884 m/s, with a warhead mass of 300 kg.

Zircon

So far, single launches have been recorded in Ukraine. They were probably launched from the Bastion coastal complexes. Range - up to 1500 km, altitude - 30-40 km, speed - up to 8-9 Mach, length - from 8 to 10 m, weight of the warhead - up to 400 kg.

Photo: launch of the Zircon missile (Russian media)

Oreshnik

A medium-range ballistic missile. The only recorded use was the strike on Dnipro on November 21, 2024. The attack was carried out without a warhead and had a demonstrative character.

The exact characteristics are unknown. The claimed speed is up to 10 Mach, but Ukrainian intelligence confirms a speed of 11 Mach on the terminal section of the trajectory. The missile traveled approximately 800 km from the Astrakhan region to Dnipro in 15 minutes. It carries six warheads, each equipped with six sub-munitions.

For more details on Oreshnik, read the material by RBC-Ukraine.

Air-launched cruise missiles

Kh-101 - an air-to-ground cruise missile. The range is about 5,000 km, warhead mass is up to 960 kg, and speed is up to 720 km/h. Carried by strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS.

Kh-55 - older Soviet missile, speed is up to 830 km/h, range is up to 2,500 km, warhead mass is 410 kg. It flies at low altitudes. The non-nuclear warhead does not detonate, causing significant damage upon fuel explosion.

Kh-555 - modified Kh-55, larger and heavier, the range is up to 2,500 km. Warhead mass is from 200 to 400 kg, carried by strategic bombers Tu-95 and Tu-160.

Kh-31P - an anti-radiation variant of the Kh-31 (Soviet tactical air-to-ground missile). Designed to destroy radar stations within air defense systems. Launched from tactical aircraft like Su-24, Su-27, Su-35, MiG-27M, MiG-29K, MiG-35.

Kh-22 - only compatible with Tu-22M3 for strikes on ground targets. It carries a warhead of up to 1,000 kg, range is up to 600 km. During the boost phase, it climbs to 22.5 km and accelerates to 4 Mach, while in the terminal phase attacking the target at 2 Mach. Often called the "blind killer" because it was originally designed as an anti-ship missile, but on the ground, it hits the largest object.

Sea-launched cruise missiles

The Kalibr is the so-called pride of the Russian missile industry. It was originally designed to hit land, sea, underwater and surface targets.

Photo: Kalibr cruise missile (Russian media)

The firing range against ground targets is 2,600 km, warhead mass is 450 kg, flight altitude is 20 meters above sea level and 50-150 meters above the ground, speed ranges from 0.8 to 2.9 Mach. Kalibr missiles are launched from ships and submarines.

Time from launch to attack

Typically, missile and drone attacks are preceded by an air raid alert. However, since drones fly relatively slowly, while cruise missiles are faster and ballistic missiles are even faster, flight times are taken into account.

For example, alerts for drones are declared when they enter Ukrainian airspace, while ballistic missile alerts are declared as soon as launches or missile carriers are detected.

For hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, alerts are issued as soon as a Russian MiG-31K takes off. As of summer 2023, there were nine such carriers, launched from the Savasleyka airbase in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Alerts are issued across all of Ukraine since it's unclear whether the launch is combat or training. One MiG-31K can carry a Kinzhal missile with a 500 kg warhead.

Photo: Approximate scheme of the December 13 attack (Radnyk Telegram channel)

According to estimates, if a missile is launched from the Lipetsk region, it takes 3 minutes to reach Kyiv, almost 3 minutes to reach Chernihiv and Dnipro, and little more than 4 minutes to reach Vinnytsia, Odesa, or the Starokostiantyniv airfield in Khmelnytskyi region.

The Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic aircraft are based at the Engels airfield in the Saratov region, and the Tu-22M3 at the Shaykovka airfield in the Kaluga region. Their launch areas are the Caspian region, Saratov region, Volgograd region, and the Black Sea near the occupied Crimea.

Kalibrs are also launched from the Black Sea. As the experience of recent combined attacks has shown, cruise missiles such as Kalibr, Kh-101, etc. can be used by the enemy in the amount of more than 100 units at a time. All of them carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives and have destructive power. Therefore, air raid warnings cannot be neglected.