Not a drone. Iskander flew into a government building but did not explode

Today, the heads of diplomatic missions in Kiev inspected the scene of the incident.

European Union ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Maternova said that the building had been damaged by a Russian missile.

I saw it with my own eyes: Putin knows exactly what he's doing. The Iskander ballistic missile that hit the Cabinet building was aimed exactly there - at the heart of the Ukrainian government, Maternova wrote on her Facebook account.

Diplomats were shown the wreckage of the missile itself, lots of shrapnel from the cluster munition built into the Iskander.

Only thanks to the fact that the missile did not explode completely, the entire building was not destroyed to the ground. And thanks to the quick actions of the amazing Ukrainian rescuers - true heroes - the fire was contained to three floors before it would have engulfed the entire building," the EU ambassador said.

Maternova stressed that now is the time for allies to step up support, significantly increase pressure on Russia and give Ukraine everything it needs to defend its skies.

The authoritative publication Defense Express, which specialises in the military-industrial complex and armaments in general, pointed out that the nature of the damage to the building indicates that it was a missile, the warhead of which weighs 450 kg, and it did not explode. And the fire in the building was caused by the ignition of fuel tanks of the missile.

As the publication notes, it was a cruise missile 9M727 is one of three designed for the Iskander complexes, along with 9M728 and 9M729. They are mostly labelled simply as Iskander-K. The missile that hit the government building is believed to be a ground-launched variation of the 3M-14 Kalibr.

According to the AFU, the enemy used 9 Iskander missiles on 7 September, 4 of which were shot down.

It (this missile, ed.) is often used by the Russians to strike Ukrainian cities. One of the most famous episodes with its use is a strike on the Drama Theatre in Chernihiv in 2023. As in the absolute majority of all other Russian weapons, this missile also actively uses Western microelectronic components from the civilian market, which are manufactured in China, - writes Defence Express.

As Socialportal previously wrote, after the latest most massive Russian shelling of Ukraine on 7 September, when the Russian Federation launched more than 800 drones and missiles, US President Donald Trump again said he was not satisfied. He expressed his desire to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin again.

With the shelling on 7 September and the first attack on Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers building, the Kremlin is clearly demonstrating its strategy to escalate and continue the war, experts assure.