Russia May Have New Missile Tactics to Skirt Ukraine's Air Defenses: ISW

The Russian military may have successfully changed tactics to block Ukraine from detecting missile attacks, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

A report published by the U.S.-based think tank on Thursday noted that four Russian "Kalibr" missile strikes had successfully targeted the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in the early morning hours. The attacks, which purportedly struck an apartment building and houses, resulted in at least one death and 23 injuries, according to Reuters.

Ukraine's Operation Command "South" said in a Facebook post that the missiles avoided detection due to tactics that included the use of "location features and trajectory changes." The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a Telegram message that "a concentrated strike" launched from the Black Sea had been successful in hitting "all assigned objects."

ISW hinted that the attacks could be a harbinger of a renewed Russian "missile campaign to degrade Ukraine's unified energy infrastructure," with Russian forces having previously "abandoned the effort" due to it failing "definitively."

"Russian forces maintain the capability to renew their missile campaign if they desire, and Russian forces may employ these tactics in order to conserve their stocks of high- precision missiles in the event of a renewed missile campaign," ISW said.

Newsweek has reached out via email to the Russian MoD for comment.

During his nightly televised address on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that Russian missiles had hit Mykolaiv, saying that the attack had "damaged dozens of ordinary houses and two educational institutions."

"In Mykolaiv, the debris has been cleared from the site of a rocket attack that took place last night," Zelensky said. "More than 20 people were wounded, one person was killed ... My condolences to the families and friends."

The Ukrainian president also said that a separate missile attack had hit civilian buildings in the Donetsk region.

"In the evening, another rocket attack was launched at Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region," said Zelensky. "A school, hospital and residential buildings were damaged. Unfortunately, there are people injured."

Last week, Ukraine seemingly boosted its ability to defend against Russian missile attacks, having announced that shipments of Patriot surface-to-air missile defense systems from Western allies had been delivered.

The Patriot systems, which are designed to intercept incoming missiles and rockets, consist of a radar set, an engagement control station, missile launchers and Patriot missiles.

It is not clear whether Ukraine attempted to use any of the new systems to thwart the recent attacks. The Ukrainian Air Force put at least some of the systems into combat service within days of their arrival, according to The Kyiv Independent.

The Russian military has been ramping up its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. Missile attacks are only one element of the overall assault.

So-called "glide bombs"—standard bombs with added wings and navigation systems that allow them to glide to targets—have increasingly been used to launch attacks that have been called "devastating."