Russia launched almost 5,000 missiles at Ukraine worth $16 billion. INFOGRAPHICS
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian invaders have fired about 4,750 missiles of various ranges on the territory of Ukraine.
This is reported by Forbes, Censor.NET informs.
"Russia's advantage in the presence of long- and medium-range missiles was one of the main ones. At the beginning of the war, the AFU were limited by the range of the old Soviet "Tochka-U" complexes (120 km), the Russian Federation at that time could fire at the entire territory of Ukraine and had thousands of missiles in reserve," the report says.
But since February 24, Russia has used almost all Kalibr and Kh-555/101 missiles. Therefore, the Russian military probably started using more expensive Kh-47 Kindzal missiles.
According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov, as of January 3, 2023, the Russian Federation had only 59 Kalibr missiles. The Russian military-industrial complex produces about 15 Kalibr missiles every month. Moscow is currently using approximately the same number of missiles to attack Ukraine (44 missiles for the period from January 3 to March 30). During the 13 months of the Great War, the stockpile of Russian Kh-555/101 missiles also "shrunk" by more than 90%.
"The scale of Russia's problems is confirmed by statistics - in recent months, the intensity of shelling has decreased sharply, probably the difficulties with the production of new missiles have been added due to sanctions on electronic components. However, Russia still has thousands of short-range missiles of the S-300 type, which hit at a distance of up to 200 km and destroy front-line cities," the publication writes.
Forbes notes that Russia is capable of producing only about 50 long-range missiles per month. And to accumulate a supply, the invaders need to reduce the number of shelling. Therefore, it is likely that the occupiers will limit the use of missiles in the summer to create a reserve for the following winter. Or they will completely abandon the idea of hitting the Ukrainian energy infrastructure and change the tactics of missile strikes, choosing new priorities.
"Since the beginning of the great war, Russia has used about 2,475 long-range missiles with a total cost of $12.5 billion and about 2,300 short-range missiles worth $3.5 billion to attack Ukraine," Forbes calculated.
The publication notes that the US used about $1 billion worth of missiles to bomb Iraq in 2003. Almost as much was spent on a missile attack on Iraq in 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. In the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the United States spent about $10 million a day for missiles and airstrikes. This is four times less than the average expenses of the Russian Federation.
"Thus, the shelling of Ukraine became one of the most expensive missile campaigns in modern history. But unlike the operations of the US and its allies, they did not give a tangible advantage to the Russian Federation on the battlefield and did not become effective in destroying the economy of Ukraine," Forbes summarized.
