- Yaroslav Lukiev Lukiev
- BBC news
The Ukrainian military said tests of the missile fragments showed no abnormal levels of radioactivity
Ukraine’s military said Russia is now using nuclear-capable missiles with unexploded warheads to deplete the capabilities of Ukraine’s air defenses.
The military showed what it said were fragments of Soviet-made X-55 missiles – designed for nuclear use – found in two regions of western Ukraine.
A Ukrainian official said the missiles were fired “to deplete our country’s air defense system”.
He said tests on the fragments showed no abnormal levels of radioactivity.
Ukrainian military experts say Russia may have largely depleted its massive missile arsenal, after carrying out wave upon wave of massive attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in recent weeks.
They say Moscow is now resorting to the use of blunt bullets, which continue to wreak havoc. A British intelligence report in November came to similar conclusions.
Russia – which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 – has not commented publicly on the matter.
At a news conference Thursday in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, military officer, Mykola Danylyuk, showed reporters what he described as fragments of an X-55 cruise missile known as AS-15 by NATO, which was found in the western part of Lviv and Khmelnytsky regions.
He said the shells were designed in Soviet times to hit “strategic targets with predetermined coordinates”.
Britain said the missiles were designed “solely as a nuclear weapons delivery system”.
However, the Russian military is believed to have removed the nuclear warheads from missiles fired at Ukraine and replaced them with an inert system.
Danylyuk stressed that only a missile armed with a non-explosive warhead “presents a great danger” due to its kinetic energy and fuel residues.
“This is evidenced by the latest attack, when an X-55 missile hit a residential building,” he said.
He added that tests indicated “there was no contact (of the missile) with nuclear elements.”
On Thursday, an air-raid alert was briefly triggered across Ukraine, except for Russia-annexed southern Crimea, after reports that Russian warplanes may be preparing to carry out a new wave of missile strikes. The warning was later deactivated.
In other developments Thursday:
- US President Joe Biden said he was “ready” to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, if he showed interest in ending the war – but added that the Russian president “hasn’t done so yet”.
- Moscow said the German parliament’s move on Wednesday to recognize the mass starvation of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s as genocide amounted to an attempt to “demonize” Russia.
- The Ukrainian nuclear company has fired the interim chief engineer of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of treason and collaboration with the Kremlin.
