According to a report published by the US defense website ISW "War Research", Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, was attacked by multiple Russian "Iskander-K" cruise missiles on the night of June 30. The Ukrainian army claimed to have successfully intercepted most of the incoming enemy missiles with little losses. However, the Russian side claimed that the missile strike was "effective", and that it was a "decapitation operation" against Ukraine's core targets. There will be more such blows in the future.
The "Iskander-K" cruise missile and the well-known "Iskander" series of tactical ballistic missiles are not the same type of weapons, but only follow the launch vehicle of the "Iskander" ballistic missile and integrate them into a system to improve the coordination ability of different weapons. The "Iskander-K" cruise missile can be traced back to the Soviet Union's development of a land-based cruise missile system in the 80s of the 20th century, and a cruise missile with a range of nearly 3,000 kilometers was obtained by modifying the navy's ship-based cruise missile and deploying it on a land-based mobile launcher. Cruise missiles, combined with the army's original medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, could easily bring the whole of Western Europe into the Soviet army's strike range without occupying a valuable share of intercontinental missiles. The superiority of the Soviet army in these aspects made NATO sit on pins and needles.
In the late 80s of the 20th century, the Soviet Union's national power declined and it sought a compromise in the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union eventually signed the "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty," under which each side destroyed intermediate-range and medium- and long-range land-based missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers, including both cruise and ballistic missiles. As a result, the land-based cruise missile system, the SS-23 "Oka" tactical ballistic missile, the SS-20 "Sabre" long-range ballistic missile, and other weapons that the Soviet Union was proud of, which were nearing the end of development, were dismantled, and those already manufactured were completely destroyed. It is worth mentioning that the SS-23 "Oka" is the very predecessor of today's "Iskander" tactical ballistic missile.
Although the United States has also destroyed weapons such as "Pershing" tactical ballistic missiles of similar range, the delivery of medium- and medium-range missile weapons by the US military relies more on sea-based and air-based weapons, such as the "Tomahawk" cruise missiles launched by warships, or long-range cruise missiles launched by B-52 bombers, and the land-based missiles destroyed by the treaty do not cause much damage to the US military. But the Soviets have become more reliant on land-based launchers, and have developed many new models, and the damage caused by this treaty has been almost devastating, and it is said that the designers of the "Oka" missiles were hospitalized in a panic when they heard that their latest weapons would be destroyed.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia found itself continuing to be suppressed by the West, and blind compromise did not bring security and understanding. After a certain recovery of national strength, Russia began to develop – or more precisely "restored" – new tactical missiles and land-based cruise missiles on the basis of the Soviet legacy. The Iskander and Iskander-M short-range tactical ballistic missiles and the Iskander-K cruise missiles are the result of this. "Iskander-K" is an improved version of the Navy's "Caliber" cruise missile.
The United States announced its withdrawal from the INF Treaty in 2019, and Russia also annulled the treaty after the United States withdrew. However, the Americans' move is actually self-defeating, because after the treaty is gone, Russia's medium-range and medium-range land-based missiles have been developed faster. "Iskander-K" was originally limited to 490 kilometers according to the provisions of the treaty, but after the cancellation of the treaty, it was able to increase the range to 1,000 kilometers. On the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, this range can carry out strikes against Ukraine at an absolutely safe distance, and the accuracy of "Iskander-K" is quite powerful, and it has undertaken many "decapitation operations" against important targets in Ukraine.
But Putin's punishment has only just begun. Since the end of May, Russia has abruptly increased its strikes against important targets in Ukraine's rear, and has declared that it will continue to carry out such strikes and will invest more and newer missile weapons. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has deployed intensive anti-aircraft interception fire, but Russian missiles can still penetrate and hit targets.