At least three people were killed in the assault on the capital, and at least one died and 11 were wounded in a separate strike in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      16 minutes ago

      Very much. One of the very first things they did at the outset of the war to try to delay Ukrainian aircraft from getting in the air was use ballistic missiles. In a very expensive way to do this, I recall that one of the things they did was to try to crater runways at Ukrainian airbases by dropping ballistic missiles onto them down the length of them. Had satellite footage showing a series of ballistic missile-created craters down the length of them.

      kagis

      It looks like Russia does have anti-runway weapons – the BetAB-500ShP is apparently one. I assume that they just couldn’t use it in that role because they couldn’t get air superiority.

      EDIT: I guess I shouldn’t say that the aim was runway cratering. I remember seeing the satellite footage of the craters down a runway and discussion about use of ballistic missiles, but I guess that they could have been trying to hit aircraft placed next to the runway (that Ukraine moved or something, as there weren’t destroyed aircraft there). I think that they were probably trying to crater the runway, but I do not know that for a fact.

      From the standpoint of your question, though, doesn’t really matter – either way, was still really early.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      13 hours ago

      Yes, the Iskander missile has been used since early 2023 at least and it’s a ballistic one

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Yep. Additionally Russia also utilized their larger ICBM and deployed inert MIRV payloads, mostly as a demonstration and fear tactic.

        Obligatory fuck the Russian aggressors. Slava Ukraini.