The massacre in Dnipro demonstrates Russia’s inability to deliver long-range precision strikes.

On January 14, the Russian Federation most likely used a long-range Kh-22 supersonic cruise missile in the attack on a residential high-rise building in the city of Dnipro. This weapon has poor accuracy when used against ground targets, UK defense intelligence has said. Therefore, as British intelligence officers emphasized, the statements from the Russian side that a Ukrainian air defense missile was responsible for the attack are groundless. The UK official noted that missiles of this type are known to be inaccurate when used against ground targets because its radar guidance system does not distinguish targets in urban areas well. The official added that similar weapons had caused other incidents with mass casualties among civilian populations. That the Russian Federation used such missiles is further indication of their inability to deliver high-precision, long-range strikes. The intelligence summary said that most likely the apartment building was struck precisely because of the missile’s difficulty with dynamic target identification and Russia’s lack of access to rapid and accurate combat damage assessment.