Watch Russian Frigate in Black Sea Fire Four Kalibrs at Military Targets in Ukraine

Developed at the end of the Cold War and introduced into service with Russia’s military in the mid-1990s, the Kalibr (lit. ‘Calibre’) series of cruise missiles made their combat debut during the Russian counter-terrorist operation in Syria in 2015.

The Russian military has released footage of a salvo of four Kalibr cruise missiles being fired at military targets in Ukraine from onboard a frigate in the Black Sea.

The release of the footage coincides with MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov’s announcement Thursday morning that the Russian military had hit four depots near the Ukrainian cities of Nikolaev, Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Chuguev supplying fuel to the Ukrainian military using high-precision sea and air-based missiles.

A day earlier, Konashenkov said that the Russian military had used Onyx missiles fired from Bastion-P coastal defence missile systems to attack fuel depots near the cities of Radekhov, Kazatin, Prosyanaya, Nikolayev and Novomoskovsk.

Kalibr missiles were used extensively in Syria to target Daesh (ISIS)* and al-Qaeda* fighters and their curators across in Syria between 2015 and 2018.

Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on 24 February, they have been used extensively to target military fuel facilities, repair depots used to fix Ukrainian military hardware, and other priority targets. The missiles come in several variants, with an operational range of between 1,500 and 2,500 km, and a 400-500 kg payload of high explosives.

* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.