Zircon Missile Strike on Kiev: What Russia Fired Overnight

Russian forces have struck Kiev with a combined salvo of 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, P-800 Oniks supersonic cruise missiles, Iskander-M ballistic missiles and S-400 surface-to-air missiles turned against ground targets, in an attack that began on the evening of October 21. The missiles were accompanied by 210 strike drones, of which 181 had been shot down or suppressed by the morning of October 22, the Ukrainian Air Force reported, including 87 jet-powered Shahed-type designs. Its statement recorded hits at 32 locations and listed interceptions only for drones, while President Volodymyr Zelensky put the number of missiles fired at 21. The mix of weapons highlights how Russia now pairs its fastest missiles with mass drone waves to stretch Ukraine’s air defences, particularly as Western interceptor deliveries have struggled to keep pace.

The Zircon is far from new to the Ukrainian capital, with the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise having identified the missile from wreckage recovered after a strike on February 7, 2024. That was widely reported as the first identified use of the weapon in Ukraine, and the institute’s director Oleksandr Ruvin later stated that analysis of the debris indicated the missile did not meet its claimed specifications. Developed as a ship-launched anti-ship weapon for the Russian Navy, the Zircon was described by President Vladimir Putin in February 2019 as capable of around Mach 9 and a range of more than 1,000 kilometres. The P-800 Oniks, a ramjet-powered supersonic anti-ship missile fired from K-300P Bastion-P coastal batteries, has similarly been fired at land targets, with its supersonic speed leaving defenders considerably less time to react than slower cruise missiles.

Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov stated that one of the Iskander-M missiles carried a K5 cluster warhead, which he said bursts above the ground and scatters 58 submunitions over an area of roughly 400 by 400 metres. He said the warhead was designed to inflict maximum harm on people and equipment, a claim that has not been independently verified. At least two people were killed and 34 injured, five of them children, in the capital and the surrounding region, Zelensky stated, with damage reported in the Holosiivskyi, Obolonskyi, Pecherskyi, Sviatoshynskyi and Dniprovskyi districts and six ambulances wrecked at a medical facility in Pecherskyi, according to reporting by the Kyiv Independent. The appearance of S-400 missiles on the Air Force’s list reflects a practice Russian forces have relied on since 2022, firing long-range surface-to-air interceptors at ground targets, including against Kharkov and other cities within reach of the border.

The strike came only hours after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in St. Petersburg, in talks that produced no breakthrough on reviving trilateral negotiations stalled since February. Witkoff described the Russian president as a “humanitarian” following Moscow’s release of the American prisoner Stephen Hubbard. Kiev has meanwhile pressed its own long-range strike campaign against Russian military infrastructure. The Russian outlet Astra cited eyewitnesses who reported that drones and missiles hit the 75th Arsenal weapons plant in Serpukhov, in the Moscow region, on the same night, a report that has not been independently verified.