According to the Ukrainian military, Russia is currently employing nuclear-capable missiles with non-explosive payloads to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses.
It revealed what it claimed were remnants of Soviet-made, nuclear-capable X-55 cruise missiles discovered in Ukraine’s two western regions.
The rockets are being launched to “exhaust our country’s air defense system,” according to a Ukrainian official.
He stated that tests conducted on the fragments revealed no abnormal amounts of radiation.
After conducting wave after wave of enormous attacks against Ukraine’s vital infrastructure in recent weeks, Ukrainian military experts speculate that Russia may have considerably depleted its vast missile stockpile.
Moscow has reportedly resorted to utilizing blunt projectiles that nevertheless wreak destruction. November’s British intelligence report reached similar conclusions.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, has made no public statements regarding this matter.
During a briefing on Thursday in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, military officer Mykola Danyliuk showed reporters what he described as remnants of X-55 cruise missiles (called AS-15 by NATO) discovered in the areas of Lviv and Khmelnytsky.
According to him, the Soviets developed the bullets to hit “strategic targets with specified coordinates.”
The United Kingdom stated that the missiles were “exclusively developed as nuclear delivery systems.”
It is thought, however, that the Russian military removed the nuclear warheads from the missiles launched toward Ukraine and replaced them with an inactive system.
Mr. Danyliuk emphasized that even a missile equipped with a non-explosive warhead “presented a tremendous threat” due to its kinetic energy and residual fuel.
The most recent attack, in which an X-55 missile struck a residential structure, is evidence of this.
He claimed that testing revealed “no contact [of the missile] with nuclear components.”
Thursday, a temporary air warning was issued for the entirety of Ukraine, except the southern Crimea peninsula, following concerns that Russian warplanes may be ready to launch a new wave of missile strikes. The alarm was eventually canceled.
In other Thursday developments:
- Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, stated that he was “willing” to speak with Vladimir Putin if the latter expressed a desire in ending the war, but noted that Putin “had not yet done so.”
- Moscow stated that Wednesday’s decision by the German parliament to recognize the mass starving of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s as genocide was an attempt to “demonize” Russia.
- The nuclear operator of Ukraine fired the acting head engineer of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, accusing him of treason and collusion with the Kremlin.
