Russia is firing dummy missiles to drain its air defenses, says Ukraine

• The use of such missiles is intended to distract Ukraine’s air defense system, a Ukrainian official says.
• Such missiles are generally aimed at infrastructure and residential areas, Mykola Danyliuk says.

The Ukrainian military claims that in an effort to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, Russia is now employing missiles with nuclear warheads.

These updates were provided by Mykola Danyliuk, a member of the Ukrainian armed forces research unit, at a briefing on Thursday that was held at a location where missile fragments from what Ukraine claims is a Russian Kh-55 cruise missile were on display.

Pointing to a fragment on stage, Danyliuk said, “I would also like to add that even a missile without a warhead, a missile with a warhead like this, poses a great threat because of its kinetic energy and fuel. This is evidenced by… the impact of a Kh-55 missile into a residential building.”

“This exact fragment was a compartment of the warhead. So, this is a substitute for a thermo-nuclear guided charge, which is used in Kh-55 missiles,” he said.

Danyliuk said tests on this Kh-55 missile did not show abnormal levels of radioactivity, “which means it didn’t have contact with nuclear elements.”

On Nov. 26, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update that “Russia is likely removing the nuclear warheads from ageing nuclear cruise missiles and firing the unarmed munitions at Ukraine.”

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