Images released by the Russian milbloggers Досье Шпиона (Spy Dossier) and КіберБорошно (CyberBoroshno) on Tuesday showed the aftermath of what was said to be an Aug. 20 Ukrainian drone attack against the Molkino training area near the town of Goryachy Klyuch in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region.
The location is adjacent to the base for Russia’s 1st Guards Missile Brigade which is known to operate the 9K720 Iskander-M (NATO: SS-26 Stone) short-range ballistic missile system that has been attacking Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities over the past several months.
Photos published by the milbloggers, which were likely taken by Russian troops and passed anonymously to social media, show several charred vehicles inside damaged storage buildings, along with evidence of unsuccessful attempts to put out the fires. The damage was reportedly inflicted by up to 14 Ukrainian kamikaze drones during an overnight attack, destroying at least six vehicles associated with the Iskander missile systems.
The photos show a destroyed 9P78-1 transport-erector launcher (TEL) vehicle along with five 9T250 transport-loading vehicles and a probable KamAZ truck housing a mobile command post. According to some reports a Pantsir-S1 air defense system, warehouse facilities and other support vehicles were also hit and damaged but no images were included to confirm this.
Neither Ukrainian or Russian official sources have to date confirmed the veracity of the reports of the attack or the images shown.
Commentary on the attack published on military issues websites including Ukraine’s Defense Express and United 24 as well as the US-based Defence Blog and others was split over the significance of the attack on the Russian brigade’s operational capability.
While some commentators categorized the attack as an “unprecedented” blow and a serious loss to the operational capability of the Iskander brigade, others were more sanguine.
While marking an undoubted operational coup for Ukraine’s armed forces and a short-term blow to the Russian unit’s prestige, an Iskander-M missile brigade holds more than 50 operational and logistic vehicles and is made up of three battalions, each equipped with four TELs – according to a 2022 Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) analysis.
Real battle damage assessment will be done after examining data from reconnaissance platforms such as US/NATO Rivet Joint, and Global, Hawk along with other allied and Ukrainian intelligence assets, but that information is unlikely to be revealed to the public.
The Iskander M has single stage solid propellant motor giving it a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) and can carry a nuclear warhead and a range of conventional payloads including cluster munition, fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast, a high-explosive fragmentation, and “bunker busting” penetrator warheads.