Ukraine destroys Russian S-400 launcher in Bryansk region

Ukraine’s Defense Forces destroyed a Russian S-400 air defense launcher in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast on Sept. 17, using FP-1 drones, according to Fire Point, the Ukrainian company that builds the drone.

Fire Point said the launcher had been modified by Russian forces to strike ground targets and had previously been used against Kyiv. The company said the strike hit the launcher near the village of Poroshino, along highway 15K-303. The open-source monitoring group CyberBoroshno said it geolocated the destroyed vehicle from photos of the wreckage, pinning the site at coordinates 53.134224, 33.944510.

Ukraine’s General Staff separately reported that its forces struck two S-400 launchers overnight into Sept. 17 in the Vygonychi area of Bryansk Oblast, a location close to Poroshino, though it is not clear whether that report describes the same launcher Fire Point identified or a separate one. Russia has not confirmed any S-400 losses. Bryansk’s acting governor, Alexander Bogomaz’s successor Yegor Kovalchuk, said Russian air defenses shot down 82 drones over the region in 24 hours but made no mention of losses among the region’s own air defense systems.

The S-400 Triumf is Russia’s long- and medium-range surface-to-air missile system, built to shoot down aircraft, drones and cruise missiles, and Russia has claimed it can also intercept some ballistic targets. Since 2024, Russia has adapted some of the system’s interceptor missiles for a secondary role, firing them at ground targets in Ukraine on a quasi-ballistic trajectory. That dual use is why destroying individual launchers has become a specific target set for Ukraine, since a single system removed from service can eliminate both an air-defense asset and a launcher capable of hitting cities like Kyiv.

Fire Point introduced the FP-1 in late 2024 as a long-range, one-way attack drone built for deep strikes into Russian territory, with a payload of 60 to 120 kilograms (130 to 265 pounds) and a publicly stated range that has grown over time, from roughly 1,600 km (994 miles) at introduction to as much as 3,400 km (2,110 miles) in extended-range configurations the company began advertising in mid-2026.

The drone has previously been used against Russian refineries and other high-value sites well beyond the front line, including a strike on the Omsk refinery in July and a facility in the Yamalo-Nenets region on Sept. 9.