S-300 Ground Attack Use

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S-300 debris - Source See also OSINTtechnical on Twitter

Accusations of use against land targets

Serhiy Melnyk, the head of the Kharkiv military garrison, reported that the invaders attacked Kharkiv with S-300 missiles that had been launched from Russia’s Belgorod region.

More sources

Reports suggest that Ukraine has resorted to using the older Soviet S-200 air defense system to counteract Russian ground targets. Before the outbreak of the conflict, Ukraine boasted about a hundred S-300 batteries, a legacy from the Soviet era. However, there were claims that until 2014, these systems hadn’t received the requisite maintenance. That situation changed when Russia launched its campaign against Ukraine in the Donbas region, impelling Ukraine to ramp up the upkeep of these systems from that point forward. Ukraine also possesses the capability to tweak its S-300 systems to be effective against ground targets.
S-300 and S-400 use 5B55 or 48H6 missiles of various modifications for shelling Ukrainian cities
The exact range when launched along a ballistic trajectory to hit ground targets is unknown. According to various estimates, it can be up to 100–120 km. The first information about the use of anti-aircraft guided missiles of the 5B55 type by the Russians on ground targets appeared in the summer of 2022.
While we do not have the ability to integrate with European radars, we are using it as a cheap short-range ballistic missile,” Denys Stielerman said.

"Stray Ukrainian" missile hits Poland

Experts believe that it was a 5B55 missile from the S-300 system, produced in Russia. The prosecutor's office allegedly knows the exact location on Ukrainian territory where it was launched to down a target during a large-scale Russian missile attack on Ukrainian cities on 15 November 2022.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation told Rzeczpospolita that Poland had established that the missile that landed in the village of Przewodow was an S 300 5-W-55 air-defence missile fired from Ukrainian territory. "This rocket has a range of 75 km to 90 km," the newspaper cited a source as saying. "At that time, the Russian positions were in a place from which no Russian missile could reach Przewodow."

Potential incidents where deployed

Shrapnel collected at the scene according to WaPo Could be consistent with S-300. The Ukrainian side made the claim of use of an S-300 within only two or three hours of the strike. --Diagonal (talk) 15:48, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Claim made publicly that day by Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
Nov 8: Oleksandr Starukh - For comparison: - This morning, Russian terrorists attacked one of the villages of the Zaporizhia region with S300 missiles. One enemy munition exploded near a house, damaging a house and structures, while another rocket exploded in a field.

Likely falling Ukrainian air defense

There were many Russian reports that strikes on civilian targets resulted from failing Ukrainian defenses, or falling debris. At least one such incident is beyond doubt:

There was also footage of other incidents which looked like Ukrainian (air defense) missile slamming into a building, or (some missile) into a civilian crowd nearby (not saved/handy)

Regarding S-300: (1) Ukraine likely use old missiles, not fully serviced; those may not self-destruct after missing its target (2) air defenses often placed in or near civilian areas and missile running off course can hit unintended targets, buildings, or bring debris down onto civilian areas (3) intentional use of S300 seems to require fiddling with targeting system. Target is illuminated by ground radar, to guide missile towards the target --this likely needs target to be in radar direct line of sight or nay not work as intended. When missile is near target, it may (depending on modification) switch to self-homing, typically infrared; that would not work, at least reliably, on fixed 'cold' target. Also, in automatic mode it searches for moving targets (using doppler effect); that would not work either. So it needs somebody pretty knowledgeable to fiddle with robust battle-tuned system. That could be on the cards as false-flagging during relative peace, but probably not a strong incentive to bother when real targets are flying overhead.

Intentional targeting

Analysis

According to this account, the Belarusian military tested its S-300 air defense systems against “important ground targets on the territory of a potential enemy” during an exercise in the same year. Belarusian officials claimed this was the first time that the country had experimented with this capability, which allows an “adapted … S-300 to destroy ground targets tens of kilometers from firing positions."...At the time, Belarus was known to use the S-300PS (NATO codename SA-10 Grumble) version of the system, introduced in the mid-1980s and which includes 5V55R missiles which a maximum engagement range of up to 56 miles against aerial targets.
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