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Russian Decoys Trick Ukrainian Air Defense While Kh-101 Stealth Missiles Deliver A Painful Blow

On May 1, 2028, Russian cruise missiles struck a painful blow to Ukrainian military infrastructure that significantly degraded Ukraine’s ability to launch a counter-offensive.

Russian cruise missiles struck a facility in the Ukrainian city of Pavlograd in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, causing a massive mushroom cloud blast, which by all reckoning was the granddaddy of all blasts so far in the conflict.

The RuMoD cryptically stated on May 1, 2023, “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a long-range high-precision air and sea-based missile strike against Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities.

“The goal of the attack has been reached. All the assigned targets have been neutralized. The enterprises producing ammunition, weapons, and military equipment for Ukrainian forces have been disrupted.”

Multiple social media sources report that the likely target in Pavlograd was a plant in the city used for producing missile fuel and explosives.

Ukraine’s Version Of The Attack

Completely ignoring the fact that a cruise missile couldn’t have produced such a massive blast all by itself and video footage strongly suggests secondary explosions, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration Serhiy Lysak stated on his Telegram channel, “An industrial enterprise was damaged in Pavlograd.

“A fire broke out there, which the rescuers have already put out. In the residential area, 19 high-rise buildings, 25 private houses, six schools and pre-school education institutions, and five shops were mutilated.”

Considering the subsonic terminal speed of a cruise missile and its relatively small warhead, it’s highly likely that one or more missiles struck rocket fuel containers or motors that were placed either in the open or under light protective cover.

Ordinarily, explosives and incendiary material is stored in deep underground facilities safe from even large warhead aerial attacks. The fact that large quantities of rocket motors and/or fuel were in the open would suggest that the incendiary cargo was about to be transported. Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) appear to have struck precisely when the vulnerability was greatest, suggesting superior intelligence.

Russia’s meticulous planning is also evident because Russia made a great effort to spoof and deceive Ukrainian air defense (AD). A large number of Russian bombers (some reports suggest nine Tu-95 and two Tu-160) got airborne. Strangely, according to multiple sources, they launched just 18 cruise missiles!




Kh-101 missile
File Image

According to Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Russia began launching missiles at Ukraine around 2:30 a.m., using strategic aircraft, nine Tu-95 aircraft, and two Tu-160 aircraft.

He says, in total, Ukraine’s air defense shot down 15 out of 18 air-launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles.

Kh-101 – Stealth, Destructive Power, And Accuracy

The Kh-101 is a low-observable cruise missile with a reported operational range of 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles). The missile’s guidance package features an inertial navigation system (INS), a terrain contour matching (TERCOM) system, a digital scene-matching area correlation (DSMAC) system, and a GPS/GLONASS receiver.

According to the open sources, the Kh-101 has a combat weight of 2,400 kilograms (including a warhead of 400 kilograms). (The Kh-555, referred to by Zaluzhnyi, is an older, non-stealthy, and less accurate variant of the Kh-101.)

The accuracy of the Kh-101 missile, in combination with the 400-kilogram warhead, gives it a considerable punch making it suitable for use against hardened targets.

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