Russia ramps up missile tests amid skies of concern

Many reports by Russian media or representatives of authorities are elements of propaganda. These reports are a part of the informational war conducted by the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Defense announced that the Russian military conducted tests by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar range.

"On April 12, 2024, a combat crew of the Strategic Missile Forces successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile of a mobile ground-launched missile system from the 4th State Central Interspecies Test Site Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan Oblast," claims the ministry.

The launch was part of "state missile system tests." The goal was to "confirm the high reliability of Russian missiles to ensure strategic security," as the statement stated.

Earlier, residents of the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions sent recordings to local media depicting disturbing trails in the sky from an "unidentified object."

Trails in the sky were also visible from the town of Sinjar in northwest Iraq, near the border with Syria, as well as from Iran and Armenia.

As reported by Baza, a year ago, tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile were also conducted from the Kapustin Yar range in the northeast part of the Astrakhan region. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the "missile's warhead hit the target in Kazakhstan with high precision."

From 2023, Russia plans to increase the number of test launches of its intercontinental ballistic missiles from four to eight per year, as reported by Reuters in December 2022, citing the commander of the Russian strategic missile forces, Sergei Karakayev. The military announced that the tests will be conducted near Murmansk in the north of the country and in the vicinity of Volgograd in the south, specifically at the Kapustin Yar range.