A Russian missile downed over Kyiv was originally intended to carry a nuclear payload, according to Ukrainian officials quoted by local media.
Instead, a nuclear warhead dummy was installed on the Kh-55 rocket, which was shot down on Thursday, the Strategic Communications Centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told the Ukraine-based Defence Express outlet.
“Simply put – for this strike, the orcs took at least one Kh-55 missile from their ‘nuclear arsenal’, ‘unscrewed’ the nuclear warhead and replaced it with a dummy before firing it at Ukraine,” it said.
“Although we should not rule it out that as events develop, at least a few such missiles will be seen.”
During today's russia air attack, Ukrainian Air Force shot down 73 cruise missiles (Kalibr/Kh-101/Kh-55);
10 Iran-made drones Shahed-136/131;
1 Orion drone.
Source: @KpsZSUAdvertisement— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 15, 2022
The discovery, which followed an examination of missile debris, raises questions, science and technology publication technology.org said.
It wrote: “There is a chance that the Russian federation is running out of conventional missiles of Kh-555 modification and they are using Kh-55 instead.
“If a nuclear charge was taken out, does this mean Russian soldiers forgot to put a conventional warhead in its place?
“Or, if a nuclear warhead was taken out, where is it now?”
⚡️Russian cruise missile (Kh-101/Kh-55) was shot down by Ukrainian Air Defense systems over #Kyiv today. pic.twitter.com/2tFbAJqee5
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) November 15, 2022
There is also a chance the missile with a dummy existed in its current form and was simply used as a somewhat cheaper decoy with the aim of misguiding Ukrainian air defence systems, said Ukrinform, a Ukrainian news agency.
Four missiles and five Shahed drones were destroyed during an air raid alert over Kyiv on Thursday, Ukrinform reported.
