Western regions of Ukraine could soon come within range of Russia’s upgraded Iskander-1000 ballistic missiles, according to Ukrainian military observer Konstantin Mashovets.

Mashovets said Russia is already producing around 20–30 upgraded missiles per month and intends to increase output to 50–60 missiles per month.

The Ukrainian military observer believes that the primary targets of the new Iskander-1000 missiles will be facilities in western Ukraine. In his assessment, Russia has two main categories of priority targets in that part of the country.

Mashovets said the objective would be to take out energy and transport infrastructure in order to completely prevent the movement of military and technical supplies from western Ukraine to the central and eastern parts of the country.

At the same time, the most serious threat to Ukraine comes not from the new Russian missiles themselves, but from the current state of Ukrainian air defenses. Due to a shortage of US interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, Ukraine’s air defenses are currently unable to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles at all.