Hits Train Station And Claims To Kill 200 Ukrainian Soldiers On Independence Day, Russian Iskander Missile Called To Have Sniper Accuracy

Russia's 9K720 Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile. (Wikimedia Commons/Vitaly V. Kuzmin)

JAKARTA - The Iskander-M tactical operational missile system has sniper-like accuracy, capable of hitting targets the size of shutters from a distance of tens of kilometers, the manufacturer said, in response to Russian strikes against military targets in Ukraine.

"The Iskander-M works with sniper accuracy. A missile launched with this operational-tactical complex, can hit the shutters from a distance of several tens of kilometers," the Rostec press service said.

"It carries a high-power warhead, which is sufficient to destroy a building, warship or land fort," the service office continued.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the attack on the Ukrainian train station on the Independence Day yesterday, calling it a military target as the death toll rose.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday its troops had attacked a railway station in eastern Ukraine, confirming an attack that Kyiv said also hit residential areas in the vicinity of the station.

The impact of the Russian rocket attack on the Chaplyne train station on the anniversary of Ukrainian Independence August 24. (Twitter/@DmytroKuleba)

In its daily briefing, Russia's Defense Ministry said an Iskander missile hit a military train on Wednesday at the Chaplyne station, which it said was used to deliver weapons to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in the eastern Donbas region.

"As a result of the direct attack of the Iskander missile on the military train at the Chaplyne railway station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, more than 200 reservists of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and 10 units of military equipment were destroyed, en route to the combat zone in Donbas," the ministry said in a statement, as quoted by the BBC.

Separately, Ukrainian Assistant to the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko said 21 people were killed when the attack hit the train station and burned five train cars.

Meanwhile, a boy was killed when a missile hit his house in the vicinity. The death toll rose to 25 on Thursday, after three more bodies were retrieved from the rubble, he said.

The Iskander-M is a Russian operational-tactical missile system, designed to destroy enemy air and missile defense systems, as well as the most important facilities they protect at a maximum range of up to 500 kilometers.

The system is equipped with two main types of missiles: the 9M723 quasi-ballistic missile with an electronic warfare module that remains controllable along the flight path and the R-500 cruise missile, which is capable of flying according to terrain profiles.

In Russia, the Iskander-M has been in service since 2014. The complete rearmament of Russian missile and artillery forces with these weapons was completed by the end of 2019.