Russia stockpiled missiles in September for new large-scale strikes on Ukraine – ISW
Illustrative photo: In September, Russia was stockpiling missiles for new large-scale strikes on Ukraine (GettyImages)
In September 2025, Russian forces likely stockpiled ballistic and cruise missiles for a series of large-scale drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, according to the ISW.
Analysts noted that so far, Russia has been launching missiles irregularly as part of nighttime attacks on Ukraine, particularly during the last days of September.
"Russian forces appear to be stockpiling ballistic and cruise missiles most days and then launching large numbers of missiles in conjunction with large numbers of drones, likely to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense systems," the analysts said.
According to their calculations, Russian forces carried out only four nighttime strikes with more than 10 missiles each in September 2025 and one nighttime strike with over 40 missiles. This highlights Russia’s recent pattern of occasionally launching several large combined strikes amid smaller drone attacks.
"Russian forces are continuing to use more cruise missiles and fewer ballistic missiles in combined strikes and are likely continuing to rely on ballistic missiles to conduct pinpoint strikes on specific targets while using drones and cruise missiles to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses," ISW analysts said.
They also noted that Ukraine’s Patriot air defense systems remain the only Ukrainian systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. For this reason, Russia may deliberately target cities and energy infrastructure that are not actively protected by Ukrainian Patriot systems to increase the chances of successfully hitting their targets.
Previously, Yurii Ihnat, head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, provided detailed information on the recent changes in Russian missiles.
It is worth noting that, meanwhile, the United States has upgraded missiles for HIMARS.
