Russia Repurposes Training Missiles to Drive Record Ballistic Attacks on Ukraine

Russia has been firing large numbers of repurposed training missiles at Ukraine, pushing its ballistic attacks to record levels in recent months, according to Ukrainian data compiled by military analysts at the General Prosecutor's Office.

The weapon, known as the RM48U — RM for "raketa mishen", or missile target — was originally designed as target practice for air defence crews. It is fired from Russia's S-400 air-defence systems and flies on a ballistic trajectory at high speeds, Ukraine's prosecutor's office and the GUR military intelligence agency said. However, it is less powerful and accurate than the Iskander, Russia's primary short-range ballistic missile.

More than half of the 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired at Ukraine in July and early August were RM48Us, the data shows. July recorded the largest number of such missiles in a single month since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, with 158 confirmed strikes, of which 87 were RM48Us. In the first eight days of August, 70 ballistic and hypersonic strikes were recorded, 36 of them RM48Us.

The scale of the deployment helps explain how Russia has expanded its summer attacks without depleting its stocks of Iskanders and other primary strike missiles. As RM48U attacks surged in July, the number of Iskanders fired fell to 38 from more than 100 the previous month.

Ukrainian prosecutors linked the RM48U and its lower precision to several strikes causing high civilian casualties, including an attack on a railway platform in the Brovary district near Kyiv that killed eight people. Forensic investigators concluded the railway strike was conducted with an RM48U after analysing the crater near the rail line, metal fragments and damage to the platform, trees and bodies. Their military experts found that RM48Us deviate from intended targets by around 300 metres on average, and their exploding warheads can unleash metal fragments over a large area.

Volodymyr Bihun, head of Brovary's military administration, said the rail attack happened shortly after midnight. Russia also fired a number of missiles that hit logistics facilities in the district, he said. Overhead imagery from commercial satellite company Planet Labs showed a warehouse complex near the Kvitnevyi railway platform had been damaged, with two plumes of smoke rising into the air.

Russia's defence ministry did not respond to questions about its use of RM48Us and other missiles in Ukraine. Moscow has denied intentionally harming civilians, saying it only targets military infrastructure. On August 5, the day of the railway deaths, the defence ministry said it struck a logistics centre in Brovary being used to store drone components.

According to Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the London-based defence think-tank RUSI, firing large numbers of RM48Us allows Russia to drain remaining Ukrainian interceptor stocks and attack lower-value targets without using up precision strike missiles. "Their use allows the Russians to husband the more capable missiles they have, the Iskanders, but also the KN-23s and the Zircons, for winter when they would want to really lean into their ballistic missile campaign," he said.

The Institute for the Study of War estimated last month that Russia has a stockpile of about 100 Iskanders compared with 400 RM48Us. Ukraine's GUR said Russia also has smaller stocks of KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles and Zircon and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which can travel faster than five times the speed of sound. RUSI's Kaushal put Russia's Iskander production at around 750 missiles a year, with solid rocket motors a limiting factor pushing Moscow to use the weapons judiciously.

The GUR said Russia plans to more than double production of the RM48U to 480 missiles this year from 200 last year.

The attacks come at a critical moment for Ukraine, which has virtually exhausted its stocks of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors — the only weapons in its arsenal capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles. There is little clarity on when fresh supplies might arrive, with more Patriots being funnelled to the U.S. military and its allies in the Gulf than to Ukraine. A senior U.S. administration official said Washington has more than enough munitions to meet its strategic goals, adding that it must prioritise protecting its critical weapons systems and expanding production.

Last month, the Ukrainian air force stopped publishing regular readouts of the number of missiles fired and shot down during enemy attacks, saying the decision was taken to prevent Russia parading reports about the poor performance of Ukrainian air defences for propaganda purposes.

July saw the deaths of at least 437 civilians in Ukraine, the largest toll recorded in a single month since the early months of the invasion, according to the United Nations, which pointed to missile and drone strikes as a key factor. Russian civilian casualties, while far lower, are also at record highs. The Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent open-source investigation group, said 327 civilians were killed in Russia in the first seven months of 2026, compared with 145 in the same period last year.