Russia fires unarmed missiles at Ukraine: “This shows how exhausted their stock is” | War Ukraine and Russia

Footage from last month shows the wreckage of an AS-15 ‘Kent’/Kh-55 shot down in Ukraine. That cruise missile was designed in the 1980s and was only used to transport nuclear warheads. According to the British intelligence services, the warhead of this fired missile was probably replaced by ballast.

“Such an inert system can still do some damage due to the kinetic energy of the missile and fuel remaining in it, but it is unlikely to be effective against predetermined targets,” the British said. almost certainly just to distract the Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems.”

The conclusion of the intelligence services is clear. “Whatever Russia’s intentions, this improvisation demonstrates the extent to which Russia’s supply of long-range missiles has been depleted,” they write in their daily update this morning.

On 17 November, an AS-15 ‘Kent’/Kh-55 equipped with blanks instead of a nuclear warhead was shot down over the Ukrainian capital Kiev. This was reported by ‘Defense Express’ at the time, a Ukrainian information and consultancy agency that specializes in assessing military equipment.

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Presumably the Russians wanted to mount a conventional warhead on the AS-15 ‘Kent’/Kh-55, but were unable to do so because they are structurally different from warheads. That is why ballast was chosen.

The experts who contacted ‘Defense Express’ also see an indication that Russia’s supply of cruise missiles is slowly running out and is even reaching a “critical level”.