Strategic aviation of the russian federation launched another series of missile attacks on Ukraine overnight April 28. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, out of 23 missiles fired by russian bombers, 21 were shot down by air defense, or effectively 90% of the salvo.
Sources told Defense Express that during this round of shelling, russians used at least one Kh-101 cruise missile made in the first quarter of 2023. Generally, firing newly-made missiles has become a common practice for the russian forces.
Read more: Another Massive Missile Attack on Ukraine Was Launched by russians - AFU Shot Down More Than 90 % of the Missiles
The trend is the later the attack occurred, the fresher missiles were used: in October 2022 shelling, one of the Kh-101 was made in the second quarter of 2022, then in December, russians already used missiles made in the third quarter, that is, no older than two months.
There is also an example from this year. According to Defense Express' sources, another missile made in the first quarter of 2023 was launched on Ukraine. Incidentally, that missile did not explode which made it possible to confirm the date of production.
Note that one missile out of the entire salvo is not enough to make conclusions, yet the Ukrainian Air Force suggests that russians will try to conserve their missile resources for another shelling campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure this autumn and thus reduce the intensity of missile attacks for the near future.
UAF estimates that the russians will be able to make around 300 long-range missiles by October 2023 for that purpose.
Read more: russians Try to Amass Missiles for a New Missile Attack in Autumn – Ukraine's Air Force
