UK military: Russia using anti-ship missiles on land targets

A Ukrainian soldier holds radios during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

An injured Ukrainian servicemen is transferred to a medical facility after getting an emergency medical treatment in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rapper Viacheslav Drofa, known as Otoy, center, trains with other militia men at a shot range outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. From the battlefronts of Ukraine comes rap music — filled with the anger and indignation of a young generation that, once the fighting is done, will certainly never forget and may never forgive.Ukrainian rapper-turned-volunteer soldier Otoy is putting the war into words and thumping baselines, tapping out lyrics under Russian shelling on his phone, with the light turned low to avoid becoming a target. It helps numb the nerve-shredding stress of combat. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A Ukrainian tank drives in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Ukrainian soldier on a position during heavy fighting in the front line in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

A Ukrainian soldier stands in position during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Unexploded shells and other weaponry is displayed by a Ukrainian specialized team searching for them in a field on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A scoreboard counts the number of injured people assisted and carried by a military ambulance personnel in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

People board an evacuation train in Pokrovsk railway station, eastern Ukraine, Friday, June 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue )

An elderly woman who has been evacuated from the Lysychansk area cries moments before departing by train to western Ukraine from the Pokrovsk railway station, Friday, June 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue )

An elderly woman who has been evacuated from the Lysychansk area look out the window of an evacuation train in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Friday, June 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue )

An elderly woman who has been evacuated from the Lysychansk area sit in an evacuation train in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Friday, June 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue )

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian bombers have likely been launching 1960s-era heavy, anti-ship missiles meant to destroy aircraft carriers with nuclear warheads against land targets in Ukraine, a British military intelligence report said Saturday.

It said the 5.5-ton Kh-22 missiles, when used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, are highly inaccurate and can cause severe collateral damage and casualties.

Russia is likely using such weapons because it is running short of more precise modern missiles, Britain's Defense Ministry said in a daily update. It gave no details of where exactly such missiles are thought to have been deployed and there was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian authorities of the use of the heavy missiles.

Both sides have been expending large amounts of weaponry in what has become a grinding war of attrition for the eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas, placing huge strains on their resources and stockpiles.

The area borders Russia and has been partly controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

The report from the British Defense Ministry said Ukrainian air defenses were still deterring Russian tactical aircraft from carrying out strikes across much of the country.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army said Russian forces were regrouping to launch an offensive on the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

In its regular operational update, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Moscow managed to get a foothold overnight in the village of Bohorodychne, 24 kilometers (about 15 miles) northwest of Sloviansk, and was preparing to attack the city.

The update said that the threat of missile and airstrikes on Ukraine from Belarusian territory remains, noting that Minsk extended military exercises along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border until June 18.

Elsewhere, the Donetsk regional police said Russian missiles hit 13 towns and villages in the region overnight. In a statement, the police said that civilians had been killed and wounded, without specifying numbers.

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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine