Iskander

The Iskander (9K720) is Russia's primary short-range Ballistic missile system, with two variants: the Iskander-M Ballistic missile (range up to 500 km) and the Iskander-K cruise missile carrier. Russia has used Iskander extensively against Ukrainian targets throughout the war. On the night of 13-14 March 2026, Russia launched 430 drones and 68 missiles in its heaviest combined strike of the war to that point, with Iskander ballistic missiles among the systems employed.

Ukraine has struck over 20 Russian air defence targets between 1 and 15 March 2026 — S-400, S-300, and Buk systems — in a campaign designed to degrade the defensive umbrella protecting Russian Iskander launchers from counter-strike. The Kremniy El plant in Bryansk, struck by Ukraine on 10 March, produces components used in Iskander guidance systems, making deep strikes on microelectronics a counter-Iskander strategy as much as a symbolic attack.

Iskander's ballistic trajectory makes it difficult to intercept: Patriot PAC-3 MSE can engage it but each intercept costs upwards of $13.5 million. Ukraine's low-cost interceptor drone programme does not effectively engage ballistic trajectories. On 29 April 2026, Russia's Ministry of Defence announced the Victory Day parade would feature no tanks, missile launchers, or armoured vehicles — the first hardware-free parade in roughly twenty years — attributed by Russian milbloggers and Western analysts to Ukraine's deep-strike reach threatening the transit of heavy military equipment to Moscow Oblast. The absence of Iskander transporter-erector-launchers from Red Square is both a symbolic and operational consequence of Ukraine's long-range campaign.