The Russian military has carried out a devastating missile attack against a Ukrainian air base and nearby air defense site in the Poltava region.
Video footage of the attack, which was reportedly carried out using Iskander-M tactical quasi-ballistic missiles, were posted to social networks on June 12.
During the attack, one of the missiles hit the Myrhorod Air Base, destroying what appears to be a Soviet-made Su-27 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF).
Another missile hit a Sovie-tmade S-300PS long-range air defense system that was deployed in the nearby settlement of Polyv’yane. Two 5N63S fire control radars of the system, one of which was deployed on a 40V6M semi-mobile mast, two transporter erector launchers, of the 5P85D or the 5P85S type, and one command vehicle were destroyed. 12 Ukrainian air defense officers were also killed.
The UAF operated some 34 Su-27UB, Su-27S1M and Su-27P1M before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine more than two years ago. The Russian military has already shot down many of these fighter jets or destroyed them on the ground.
Kiev forces also had around 100 S-300P, S-300PT, S-300PS and S-300V1 batteries in service prior to the start of the special military operation. The country received a single S-300PMU battery from Slovakia in the very first few months of the operation. Many of these systems have also been destroyed, damaged or captured by the Russian military.
The Russian military intensified strikes on high-value Ukrainian targets behind the front line in recent months, mainly using Iskander-M tactical quasi-ballistic missiles.
The Iskander-M has a range of nearly 500 kilometers. The missile can be armed different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead, a fuel–air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, an earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions.
The maneuverable missile is guided by a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system. It can be also equipped with an optical seeker with a digitized scene-mapping area correlator system for terminal guidance.
Der Friedensstifter 