Massive Russian attack that destroyed neighboring areas also included imprecise aircraft carrier killers

• Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Friday.
• Ukraine said five Kh-22 missiles were fired from the barrage.
• The Kh-22 is a large missile designed to attack NATO carriers, but it is extremely inaccurate for attacking land targets.

Russia launched its largest offensive of the war on Friday, attacking mainly energy infrastructure across major Ukrainian cities with a variety of missiles and drones.

Ukraine announced that Russian Kh-22 anti-ship missiles were used in the attack, which destroyed a residential area. Although it is unclear what specific missiles struck the neighborhood, the latest attack highlights the reckless nature of such attacks.

Given the extremely low accuracy of the Kh-22 when launched against ground targets, using the Kh-22 in attacks poses an unnecessary threat to civilians. Despite the risk that the missile will hit an unintended target, Russia has used this weapon throughout the war without regard for potential civilian casualties or massive collateral damage.

On Friday, Ukraine reported a large-scale and widespread attack by Russia that targeted most major cities, including Kharkov, Zaporizhia and Odessa. More than 150 missiles and drones struck most critical energy facilities, leaving more than 1 million households without power and severely damaging the energy and power grid.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oreshchuk highlighted some of the assets used in the attack, including 63 Shahed one-way attack drones, Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles and Kh-22 “carrier killer” missiles.

Photographs showing the wide-ranging impact of the strike were spread across X in the aftermath, showing significant damage and destruction of residential areas. One photo from Zaporizhia showed an area that “was once residential,” as former Ukrainian political adviser Anton Gerashchenko said.

Ivan Fedorov, the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region, posted on Telegram that only two of the many missiles fired in the attack caused damage. Four houses were completely destroyed, and another 40 were damaged.

Open-source intelligence reports suggested the area was destroyed by Kh-22s, noting that missiles originally designed to sink aircraft carriers were used to attack the neighborhood. Business Insider cannot independently verify this claim.

The Kh-22 Storm, which NATO calls the AS-4 Kitchen, is a Soviet-era anti-ship missile. With a warhead weighing more than 2,000 pounds, the Kh-22 is very large, and its radar is incredibly inaccurate when used against fixed targets on land, as it cannot distinguish between targets as it can at sea. is known.

Used in this manner increases the likelihood of civilian casualties and unnecessary damage. However, for Russia, the value of using the Kh-22 is that it is difficult to intercept and has low value compared to other Russian weapons.

Ukraine said it was able to intercept about 92 drones and missiles from the attack, but all Kh-22s breached its defenses.

The Kh-22 is often referred to as the “carrier killer” and was originally designed to intimidate and destroy NATO aircraft carriers during the Cold War.

Other examples of the use of the Kh-22 in war resulted in the following scenes: Similar to Friday’s attack. In January 2023, a Kh-22 crashed into a residential area in Dnipropetrovsk, killing and injuring many people. In July of the same year, Russia repeatedly attacked Odessa with Kh-22s, causing destruction.

Roughly a year earlier, in June 2022, Kh-22s destroyed a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, killing at least 20 people and injuring nearly 60 others.