Russia's Missile Count Revealed by Ukraine
Firefighters extinguish a fire at an electrical substation after a missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 22, 2024. Russia has hundreds of missiles stockpiled for use against Ukraine and is able to produce tens more each month, according to Kyiv’s military intelligence agency, as Moscow pummels the country with aerial attacks.
Russia has hundreds of missiles stockpiled for use against Ukraine and is able to produce tens more each month, according to Kyiv’s military intelligence agency, as Moscow continues to pummel the country with aerial attacks.
As of the end of April, Russian forces have around 400 Onyx cruise missiles, 270 Kalibr cruise missiles and 45 of the new air-to-surface Kh-69 cruise missiles debuted by Moscow last month, Kyiv’s GUR agency told Ukrainian military outlet, ArmyInform. Russia also has around 40 of its Zircon missiles, the agency said on Wednesday.
Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has bombarded the country with missile and aerial drone attacks, often zeroing in on Ukraine’s critical energy and defense-industrial infrastructure.
Moscow has used a variety of missiles, as well as fielding and producing new weapons in more than two years of war. Western experts have said Russia is unlikely to run out of missiles, evading sanctions and putting its defense industry on a war footing.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s GUR, Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, said in early April that Russia had around 950 high-precision missiles with ranges of more than 350 kilometers in its arsenal. Moscow generally maintains stockpiles of more than 900 missiles, he added.
In February 2024, Ukraine retrieved fragments of Russia’s Zircon ship-launched hypersonic missile for the first time, a weapon lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a tranche of next-generation weapons unveiled by the Kremlin in 2018. Russia is able to produce around 10 of these missiles each month, the GUR said.
Moscow can make 10 of its Onyx cruise missiles each month, and up to four times this number of Kalibr missiles, according to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s military said early last month that Kyiv’s attacks on Russian bases in Crimea, the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine that Moscow has controlled for a decade, had complicated Russia’s Kalibr use against Ukraine. Russia partially bases its Black Sea naval fleet at the port city of Sevastopol, using its surface ships and submarines to launch the missiles. Sevastopol’s infrastructure, and the vessels based there, have often become Ukrainian targets.
Ukraine had reported a lull in Kalibr strikes in late 2023 and the early months of 2024, saying Moscow had opted to strike targets like the country’s energy infrastructure using long-range air-launched Kh-101 missiles.
The head of Ukraine’s GUR, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, then warned in late March that “in the near future, we will see the Kalibrs again because the number of Kh-101s has significantly decreased.”
Ukraine’s air force said on April 27 that it had intercepted six out of eight Kalibr cruise missiles launched by Russia overnight as part of a barrage of missile strikes. Russia fired a total of 34 air, land, and sea-launched missiles, including Kalibr, Iskander, Kh-101 and Kh-69 missiles.
Russia used new Kh-69 missiles to strike the Trypilska thermal power plant, a facility servicing several Ukrainian regions based near Kyiv, in mid-April, Ukrainian media reported at the time.
Major Ilya Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, described the missiles as improved versions of Russia’s Kh-59. “The Kh-69 missile is a new missile for us, so we are also studying how to counter it,” Yevlash said in remarks reported by domestic media.
Russia is producing and using the Kh-69 to make its strike packages more effective and break through Ukraine’s air defenses, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) evaluated last month.
“Russia is unlikely to be able to produce them at a significantly greater speed or quantity than its other domestically produced missiles,” the ISW said.
Moscow can produce between one and three of the Kh-69 missiles each month, Ukraine’s GUR said.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
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