Russia (2008) The first documented use of the Iskander was in the
Russo-Georgian War in which Dutch journalist
Stan Storimans was killed on 12 August 2008 in
Gori. An investigation by the
Dutch government revealed that a single, 5 mm fragment from an anti-personnel sub-munition, carried by an Iskander missile, killed the Dutch journalist. In September 2009, the Russian military announced plans to deploy Iskander missiles in all the
military districts of Russia "in a short time". According to the
Stratfor report in 2010 there were five Iskander brigades stationed and operational in Russia, namely the
26th Rocket Brigade in the town of
Luga, Leningrad Oblast, south of
St. Petersburg;
92nd Rocket Brigade at Kamenka, near
Penza in the
Volga region;
103rd Rocket Brigade at
Ulan-Ude, north of Mongolia;
107th Rocket Brigade at , in the Far East; In June 2013, it was revealed that Russia had deployed several Iskander-M ballistic missile systems in
Armenia at undisclosed locations. In 2016, it was reported by media that Armenia had received a
divizion of Iskander missiles. In November 2014, US General Breedlove stated that Russian forces "capable of being nuclear" had been moved into Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula which the Russian Federation
had annexed in March, and the following month Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that Russia had deployed a nuclear-capable Iskander division in the territory. Russian Foreign Ministry officials declared the right to deploy nuclear weapons in the peninsula, which is generally
recognized as part of Ukraine, in December 2014 and June 2015. In March 2016, at least one Iskander system was reportedly deployed at Russia's
Hmeimim airbase in
Syria. In January 2017 an Israeli company claimed satellite photography confirmed the Syrian deployment. According to a Fox News report in early February 2017, four Iskander missiles had been fired at opposition targets in the
Idlib province in Syria.
Russo-Ukrainian war During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia launched several Iskander missiles over their border into Ukraine as part of their assault. These missiles demonstrated a previously unknown capability that employed decoys to confuse air defense systems. It is believed this technology was kept a closely guarded secret, and not included on Iskander missiles exported outside of Russia. In March 2023,
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat reported that Ukraine was unable to shoot down Iskander ballistic missiles. However, on 29 May, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed 11 Iskander missiles of both the ballistic and cruise missile variants. On 5 March 2024, it was confirmed that a
M142 HIMARS was destroyed by an Iskander ballistic missile near Nykanorivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. It was the first time a HIMARS system was destroyed in Ukraine. On 9 March 2024, it was confirmed that an Iskander ballistic missile was used to destroy two German-supplied M901 launchers for the
MIM-104 Patriot air defence system near
Pokrovsk. It was the first time components of a Patriot were destroyed in Ukraine. On 14 March 2024, an Iskander strike destroyed two Ukrainian Mi-8/17 helicopters from the 12th Army Aviation Brigade that were rearming in an open field in Novopavlivka, next to Avdiivka. In early July 2024, Russian forces launched a wave of attacks using Iskander missiles at Ukrainian airbases, after first using drones for aerial reconnaissance: • on 1 July, an attack on
Myrhorod Air Base resulted in the destruction of at least two
Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets • on 2 July, an attack on
Poltava Air Base resulted in a
Mi-24 gunship helicopter being severely damaged • on 3 July, an attack on
Krivoi Rog Air Base resulted in the destruction of a
Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet and a
decoy Sukhoi Su-25 attack jet On 22 November 2024, another MiG-29 was destroyed in Aviatorskoe-Dnipro air base by an Iskander missiles attack guided by a Russian drone. On 23 February 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that it has hit over 1,400 targets with the Iskander system during the war. On 1 March 2025, Russian forces attacked a Ukrainian military
training site in Cherkaske, leaving scores of Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded. On 5 June 2025, Ukrainian military claimed that their missiles struck a base in the city of
Klintsy Bryansk Oblast, destroying one Iskander missile launcher and damaged two more. According to a report by the US
Defense Intelligence Agency, Russia upgraded 9K720 Iskander and
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles with a terminal phase maneuvering capability in spring 2025 in order to bypass Ukraine's Patriot systems. A
Financial Times article from October 2025 said, citing current and former Ukrainian and Western officials, that interception rates dropped from 37% in August to 6% in September, allowing Russia to seriously damage key military sites, four drone plants, and critical infrastructure ahead of the winter. According to the French Army, Ukrainian
SAMP/T air defence systems have outperformed
Patriot missiles in intercepting Iskander missile, after Russia modified the flight profiles of Iskanders. On 14 March 2026, Ukrainian drones destroyed an
Iskander ballistic missile launcher close to the village of Vyshneve in Crimea.
Kaliningrad region In November 2008, the Russian president
Dmitry Medvedev in his first
annual address to the
Federal Assembly of Russia announced plans to deploy Iskander missiles to the
Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia's westernmost territory on the south-eastern coast of the
Baltic Sea, if the U.S. went ahead with its
European Ballistic Missile Defense System. On 17 September 2009,
US president Barack Obama announced the cancellation of the U.S. missile defense project in Poland and the Czech Republic. The following day, Moscow indicated it might in turn cancel the plans to deploy Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad; a few days later, the decision not to deploy was confirmed by Medvedev. According to Russian unofficial media reports, Russia deployed Iskander missiles to the Kaliningrad Oblast as part of military exercises in March 2015. On 8 October 2016, the Russian military confirmed that they had moved Iskander-M missiles into the Kaliningrad Oblast, adding the move was part of routine drills and had happened previously multiple times and would happen in future. In early February 2018, Shamanov confirmed that Russia had deployed an unidentified number of Iskander missiles to the Kaliningrad region. Days prior, the local military commanders said that the "park zones" for Iskander missiles deployment had been completed in the Kaliningrad region, as well as in
North Ossetia.
Armenia Armenia reportedly used its Iskander missiles against Azerbaijani forces during the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. According to unconfirmed claims by ex-president of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan, the missiles were fired on the town of
Shushi after its
capture by Azerbaijani forces in the last days of the war. Responding to these claims, Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinyan neither confirmed nor denied the claim that an Iskander was fired on Shushi, but implied that the missiles that were launched did not explode or only exploded "by 10 percent." The Armenian prime minister's claims were rejected by a number of Russian lawmakers and military experts as well as by ex-defense minister of Armenia
Seyran Ohanyan (under whom the missiles were acquired by Armenia). The Russian
Ministry of Defence released a statement claiming that the Iskander missiles were not used at all during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Another claim was made by an anonymous
Azerbaijani official that Armenian forces fired an Iskander missile at Azerbaijan's capital
Baku in the last days of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, but it was shot down by an Israeli-made
Barak 8. On 15 March, employees of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action, who were demining and clearing the territories from mines and shells in Shushi, discovered the wreckage of an Iskander-M missile with identification number 9M723. ==Operators==