Russia Fires Seven Kalibr Cruise Missiles, Hits Training Center For Ukrainian Special Forces And Mercenaries

The firing of the Russian Kalibr cruise missile. (Source: Russian Ministry of Defense via TASS)

JAKARTA - Russian missiles again hit strategic targets in Ukraine, this time it was the turn of facilities for Kyiv's special forces as well as locations that are said to house mercenaries.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet missile carrier has fired a salvo of seven Kalibr cruise missiles at land targets on Ukrainian territory, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"In the framework of a special military operation, the Russian armed forces carried out another attack with smart weapons against the Ukrainian military infrastructure," the Defense Ministry said, quoted from TASS on April 6.

The seven Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from a ship in the Black Sea, against a designated target on Ukrainian territory.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the Russian Armed Forces had used an intelligent long-range surface ship launch weapon, destroying the training center of Ukrainian special operations forces near Ochakov, which is also used for housing mercenaries.

Russian Kalibr cruise missile firing. (Source: Russian Ministry of Defense via TASS)

The Kalibr is a family of Russian cruise missiles developed and produced at the Yekaterinburg-based Novator design bureau (an affiliate of the Almaz-Antey company).

Currently, there are several configurations of cruise missiles, the surface ship-launched Kalibr-NK, the submarine-launched Kalibr-PL, the air-launched Kalibr-A, and the export version of the Kalibr-E. According to open sources, various types of Kalibr missiles are currently in service in Russia, India, and China.

The exact parameters of the Kalibr missile are classified. According to different sources, this missile can hit naval targets up to 375 kilometers and land targets up to 2.600 kilometers.

The first ship armed with Kalibr missiles in 2012 was the project 11661 Dagestan missile boat. Such cruise missiles are also installed on the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, small missile boats of the Buyan-M project, Karakurt, and several others.

The Kalibr cruise missile was used for the first time in Russian military operations in Syria. Russia's Defense Ministry said the missile was used on 13 occasions, with 99 launches at terrorist targets.