Russian missile stockpiling reaches alarming numbers, says Zelensky
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned in an interview with "The New York Times" how many S-300 missiles the Russian Federation has amassed. The aggressor country currently possesses around ten thousand of these missiles.
The Russians continue to stockpile missiles in their arsenal to carry out bombardments using a new tactic that has been in use for several months. Their army stores ammunition to strike simultaneously in multiple directions with many missiles.
As recently reported by Ukrainian intelligence, the Russian Federation's reserves are not dwindling. For months, the Russian arms industry has been capable of uninterrupted production of additional missiles, meaning that the factories' production capabilities do not diminish. To remind, at the beginning of May, it was calculated that the Russian arsenal contained about 1,000 specific missiles, including several hundred units of the 3M55 Oniks, 3M14 Kalibr, and a few dozen of the Kh-69 and 3M22 Zircon.
Zelensky calculates the number of missiles for the S-300 systems in the Russian Federation's reserves. In this case, the Russian army has noted increases, as Russians have now accumulated 10,000 S-300 missiles. Again, Zelensky stated that this was their advantage. According to data published by the portal Visit Ukraine, as recently as May 2023, the Russians had about 8,000 units of such ammunition in their reserves.
Missiles for the S-300 system
Some of the S-300 missiles accumulated by the Russians may be expired. Military and political analyst Dmytro Snegiryov recently calculated that Russians may have about 2,000 "expired" missiles that are being used for mass bombardments. In this way, the Russian Federation addresses the issue of weapon disposal.
The S-300 is an anti-aircraft missile capable of targeting virtually any flying object – aircraft, helicopters, drones, and ballistic missiles. Its advantage is the ability to conduct bombardments using 13 different missiles—hence, the Russians may have amassed as many as 10,000 missiles.
Very fast missiles
The most threatening missiles to Ukraine for the S-300 systems measure about 8 metres long and over half a metre in diameter. A rocket weighs about 1800 kilograms, while a warhead can weigh up to 180 kilograms. The maximum speed developed by these missiles (S-300PMU-1 and S-300PMU-2) is about 6900 kilometres per hour.
The ammunition can reach targets moving at altitudes of up to 27 kilometres and a maximum range of 200 kilometres in the case of the S-300PMU2 variant. Notably, missiles designed for the S-300 systems can also be launched by newer S-400 vehicles.
