SS-21 SCARAB (9K79 Tochka) - Combat

The Tochka-U complex was actively used by federal forces to destroy military facilities in Chechnya. In particular, the complex was used by the 58th Combined Arms Army to strike at militant positions in the Bamut area. The targets were a large arms depot and a fortified camp of terrorists. Their exact location was revealed by means of space reconnaissance, which then tracked the ballistic flight path of the missiles until the moment of defeat.

In 1999, the "efforts" of the Ukrainian rocket engineers "Tochka-U" thundered to the whole world. On April 20, a rocket was launched from the Goncharovsky ground located 130 km north of Kiev, which then deviated from the course and at 15:05 landed in a residential building in Brovary, breaking through nine floors. The tragic incident killed 3 and injured 5 people. Fortunately, the rocket was not equipped with a warhead, otherwise there would have been much more casualties.

On 21 October 1999 US satellites [reportedly the Defense Support Program] tracked two Russian short-range ballistic missile launched from the Russian city of Mozdok some 60 miles northeast of Grozny. The missiles slammed into a crowded Grozny marketplace and a maternity ward, killing at least 143 persons, according to reports from the region. The missiles are believed by intelligence analysts to have been SS-21s.

In 2014-2015, the Tochka-U complexes were used by Ukrainian armed forces in combat operations against the armies of the DPR and the LPR. Information about the defeat of any goals single launches have been reported.

In Syria, "Points" began to be used in 2013. By 2018, several dozens of missiles had been launched, including the more modern U version. As a result, the terrorists suffered substantial losses, and serious damage was caused to their military infrastructure. It is known that in the eighties, the SAR received 18 launchers.

During the ongoing civil war in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the “Points” of the Houthi rebels did considerable damage to the Saudi coalition forces.

Official Russian sources provide conflicting information concerning the operational status of the SS-21 system. Russia had 24 Tochka-U units as of 2019. At the end of the year, the 448th missile brigade completed the re-equipment from the Tochka-U complexes to the new Iskander-M missile systems. On 22 November 2019 at the Kapustin Yar training ground, a solemn ceremony of presenting a brigade set of the Iskander operational-tactical missile system (OTRK) to the personnel of the missile formation of the Western Military District (ZVO) will take place. The transfer of this kit completed the rearmament of the existing missile formations of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The re-equipment of this brigade marked the final removal of Tochka-U from the armament of the Russian Armed Forces. As of 2022, according to the Military Balance, it was not in service with the Russian troops.

Russia had been phasing out its Tochka arsenal with the Iskander-M, which has greater range and can carry more than one missile per launcher. Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in Russian Armed Forces, Russian mission to the UN said in a letter to the UN Security Council and General Assembly 16 March 2022. "Given the proven record of the Kiev regime promoting false allegations and fake evidence, it should be noted that Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in the Russian Armed Forces," the letter said.

But missile launches by tactical complexes "Tochka" were practiced by units of the Russian Armed Forces during the exercises " Allied Resolve-2022 " in the Polessky area, the military department of Belarus informed 15 February 2022. The next day, it was reported by the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta "in the area of the Polessky area, units of the missile forces carried out combat launches with the Tochka-U tactical missile system. During the group strike, two mock enemy targets were hit at a distance of over 60 kilometers."

A Belarus-based analyst released video footage on 31 March 2022 reportedly showing a column of Russian military vehicles with “V” marks, which was moving from Rechitsa towards Gomel along the M10 highway. “There were at least 8 Tochka-U, several BTR-82a, about 9 KamAZ trucks, some of which are carrying Tochka-U missiles, communication vehicle and a crane,” the MotolkoHelp said. The quality of the video, acquired in a pretty heavy snow storm, does not permit positive identification of these vehicles.

At least 50 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in a Russian missile strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was a deliberate attack on civilians. Ukraine’s state railway company said two Russian rockets struck the station in Kramatorsk, which was being used to evacuate civilians from areas that are expected to come under heavy attack as Moscow redirects its war efforts to focus on eastern areas where the separatists it has backed since 2014 have been fighting Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian officials, including Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said at least four children were among the dead. “The Russians are deliberately trying to disrupt the evacuation of civilians…. For them, people’s lives are just a bargaining chip and an instrument to achieve their cynical goal,” Kyrylenko said. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said about 4,000 people were at the station at the time of the attack.

“Please note that all photographs from the Allied Resolve 2022 exercise published by Kiev do not depict Russian missile systems,” the Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized 08 April 2022. “Tochka-U tactical missiles, the wreckage of which was found near the railway station of Kramatorsk, are used only by the Ukrainian armed forces.” In order to accuse Russia of launching the missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, the Kyiv regime posted on social networks photos of Belarusian Tochka-U launchers that took part in the Russian-Belarusian military exercise “Allied Resolve-2022” in February 2022.

The Tochka-U missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, which caused mass casualties among civilians, became another bloody provocation of the Kiev regime, the DPR representative office said. In particular, they recalled that the Military Balance (The Military Balance, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies since 1959) at the beginning of 2022 does not indicate the Russian Armed Forces as the operator of the Tochka-U missile system."

The strike on the railway station of the city of Kramatorsk was carried out by the Tochka-U tactical missile, which is used in Ukraine only by the Ukrainian armed forces, Major General Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, said at a briefing. According to the Russian military, the blow was delivered by one of the divisions of the 19th missile brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, located in the area of the village of Dobropolye, 45 km southwest of Kramatorsk.

“The Ukrainian armed forces still have a significant arsenal of Tochka-U missiles. Before the start of the special military operation, the Kiev regime had at its disposal 20 Tochka-U missile systems, which included two launchers each. During the special military operation, 8 Ukrainian Tochki-U launchers and about 90 percent of the missiles in the arsenals were destroyed. Nevertheless, the threat of the Kiev regime continuing to carry out provocations and rocket attacks on settlements with civilians remains high.” Konashenkov said.

“There is evidence of the guilt of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - it is they who are armed and use the Tochka-U missiles, the fragments of which were found at the site of the tragedy. Such inhumane actions of the Kiev regime confirm the validity of the tasks of the special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Kyiv regime is striving for maximum casualties among civilians. Their murder in the Donbass over the past eight years has become a common practice for Ukrainian armed groups. Cold-bloodedly and cynically destroying the civilian population, Kyiv is trying to shift the responsibility to the Russian side in order to discredit the special military operation to protect the DPR and LHP, ”the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.