9K720 Iskander-M / K
The workhorse short-range ballistic missile of the strike campaign — and the hardest routine target Ukraine's air defences face.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Battlefield role
Short-range ballistic and cruise strikes against cities, infrastructure, airfields and high-value systems — including the recon-strike hunt for HIMARS launchers and Patriot batteries.
Strengths
Quasi-ballistic manoeuvring and decoys stress even Patriot, the only system Ukraine fields that reliably engages it; production publicly assessed as substantially scaled since 2022; complemented in volume by North Korean-supplied analogues, recorded separately.
Limitations
Expensive per shot relative to the drone-led strike mix; launchers and depots are documented targets of Ukrainian deep strikes; documented intercepts over defended cities, though claimed rates on both sides are contested.
Campaign relevance
Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.
- The Ukrainian counteroffensives, 2022–2023 September 2022 – November 2023
via Ground Forces (Documented, high confidence)
- The eastern attritional campaign Since April 2022
via Ground Forces (Documented, high confidence)
Visual identification
Large 8×8 transporter-erector-launcher carrying two missiles under a clamshell roof — the erected single missile before launch is the signature image; the K variant fires cruise missiles from the same vehicle family.
Documented conflict use
In documented use from the war's opening salvos in February 2022 and throughout every phase of the strategic strike campaign; documented in strikes on Kyiv and other cities, and against operational targets such as airfields and air-defence sites.
Branch & service operators
- Ground Forces Documented
Related key events
Strategic campaign against Ukraine's grid begins
Massed missile and Shahed-drone salvos against power infrastructure open a recurring seasonal campaign to break civilian endurance through winter darkness and cold.
Twenty-four ballistic missiles, and none reported intercepted
Russia struck Kyiv oblast and other regions overnight into 5 August 2026 with 115 drones of Shahed, Gerbera, Italmas and other types, 24 ballistic missiles, and four missiles Ukraine's Air Force described as the combined category "Zircon/Oniks". The Air Force reported 98 drones destroyed or jammed — roughly 85 per cent — and did not report intercepting any of the missiles. Hits by missiles and 17 drones were recorded at 26 locations. Missiles were launched from Kursk, Rostov and Bryansk oblasts and drones from Kursk, Millerovo, Oryol, occupied Donetsk and Crimea. The State Emergency Service initially reported 14 killed and 22 injured; later reporting put the toll higher as rescue work continued.
Assessed as of2026-06Last reviewed2026-07-11