The Russian Reporter reported that the Russian Defense Ministry had just announced that the country's army had successfully carried out a large-scale attack on Ukraine's key defense industry facility on the evening of April 18 (local time) - before Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a ceasefire on the occasion of the Christmas Festival.
According to the statement, the Russian armed forces used precision weapons from ground, at sea and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack the testing site of the Ukraine-developed OTRK Sapsan tactical- Campaign missile complex and the Norway-made NASAMS air defense systems.
The Russian Defense Ministry affirmed that the targets of the attack were achieved, all facilities were destroyed, but did not specify the area of attack.
The ministry also said that before the restart on Christmas Day took effect, the Russian military attacked Ukrainian ammunition and military equipment depots in 142 different areas. Meanwhile, Russian air defense forces shot down 6 JDAM guided bombs, 3 HIMARS rockets and 151 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs.
According to Reporter, the Sapsan complex is considered one of the ambitious projects of the Ukrainian defense industry. Sapsan is expected to be able to use a variety of weapons, from ballistic missiles to anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles.
Although Kiev had announced that it would include the complex in its payroll since 2017, the implementation of Sapsan at full capacity has never happened yet. In the past few months, some components of Sapsan have been reported to have been tested.
According to Ukrainian developers, the Sapsan can be compared to the Russian-made Iskander-E system but has a much lighter design. The total weight of the Sapsan is about 21 tons, only half that of the Iskander-E (42 tons). Ukraine has also claimed that Sapsan has an error within 20m.
Ukraine initially set a target of manufacturing at least 200 Sapsan launchers and the corresponding number of missiles.
