UK's Defence Intelligence Explains Growing Interval between Waves of Russian Missile Strikes

The interval between waves of Russian missile strikes might be growing because Russia now needs to stockpile a critical mass of newly produced missiles directly from industry before it can resource a strike big enough to credibly overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.

As UK Ministry of Defence notes on Twitter that on 9 March, Russia conducted a wave of at least 80 long-range strikes against Ukrainian critical infrastructure. Russia deployed cruise missiles, air defence missiles in a surface-to-surface role, Iranian one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles, and an unusually large number of hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles during the attack.

This was the first major wave of long-range strikes since 16 February 2023, and likely one of the largest since December 2022. Ukrainian officials reported at least 11 civilians killed.

"The interval between waves of strikes is probably growing because Russia now needs to stockpile a critical mass of newly produced missiles directly from industry before it can resource a strike big enough to credibly overwhelm Ukrainian air defences," UK Defence Intelligence writes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned Russia’s missile attacks on Ukraine on 9 March during a phone call.