Russia Uses S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missile as Ground-Attack Weapon, Strikes Donetsk Dam Floodgates — 6 Homes Flooded

On May 25, 2026, Russian forces struck the floodgates of a hydroelectric dam in Donetsk Oblast using a repurposed S-300 surface-to-air missile fired in a ground-attack role — a tactic Russia has increasingly employed to attack targets its dedicated ground-attack missiles cannot reach or have been depleted against. The strike directly hit the floodgates on the Vovcha River, threatening the villages of Halytsynivka, Zhelanne-1, and Zhelanne-2. Six homes were flooded and 26 civilians were evacuated. The tactic of repurposing Soviet-era S-300 air defense missiles as improvised ballistic ground-attack munitions carries significant accuracy limitations but has been used by Russia against civilian and infrastructure targets throughout the war, particularly after depletion of precision-guided ground-attack missiles. The dam strike risked further flooding along the Vovcha River and potential damage to agricultural land. The incident followed Russia's unprecedented May 24 Oreshnik IRBM strike on Bila Tserkva and represented a pattern of targeting Ukrainian water and energy infrastructure.