Russian missile strikes on Ukraine aimed at degrading Ukrainian air defenses - British intelligence

Russia has resumed frequent missile strikes deep into Ukraine, likely aimed to degrade Ukrainian air defense capabilities.

The British Ministry of Defense reported this on Twitter with reference to intelligence data, Ukrinform saw.

"Since early May 2023, Russia has restarted frequent long-range missile strikes deep into Ukraine. They are likely primarily aimed at degrading Ukrainian air defences,” the report reads.

Innovating on earlier waves of deep strikes, Russia has started more frequently integrating unarmed, surveillance unscrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) into their operations, according to British intelligence.

Among them are Russian-made SuperCam UAVs which are relatively cheap and have sufficient range to fly over the cruise missiles’ targets, analysts added.

"Russia has highly likely adopted this tactic in an attempt to obtain more timely battle damage assessment and improve its targeting cycle," summary said.

The slow and inefficient targeting process has been a major weakness for the Russian military in Ukraine. However, slow surveillance UAVs are “highly vulnerable to Ukrainian air defences,” the report said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in its previous summary, British intelligence said that over the past four days, Russia had redeployed several battalions to strengthen the Bakhmut axis.