During the night strike on Ukraine on January 20, russia probably used training missiles of the RM-48U type for the first time, which Western experts consider a tool for exhausting Ukrainian air defense.
This is reported by the Telegraph.
Analysts drew attention to atypical missiles recorded during the massive attack. These are RM-48U - training munitions, which in Western publications have received the unofficial name "zombie missiles".
RM-48U were originally created not for combat operations, but as air targets for training units of the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. In fact, these are converted missiles of the 5V55 or 48N6 types, the service life of which has already ended. That is why they are called "zombie" - ammunition that has received a second life after being decommissioned.
According to the Telegraph, such missiles can carry a payload weighing from 133 to 180 kilograms. At the same time, they are not intended for precise strikes on ground targets, since their design is designed to simulate air targets.
"It is still unclear whether the missile that was able to overcome Ukrainian air defenses had a warhead or was used exclusively as a decoy," the publication notes.
Journalists suggest that the main purpose of using the RM-48U is to overload and exhaust Ukraine's air defense system. The use of such targets forces expensive interceptor missiles to be spent, which may give russia the opportunity to intensify strikes on Ukrainian cities in the future.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in December 2025, the Defense Ministry's Directorate General of Defense revealed details of a new modification of the russian Geran-2 UAV with the R-60 aircraft missile.
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