In recent months, Russia attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile whose secret development led Donald Trump to withdraw from a nuclear weapons treaty with Moscow during his first term as US president, Ukraine’s foreign minister told Reuters. These statements by Andrii Sybiha constitute the first confirmation that Russia used this ground-launched 9M729 (SSC-8 in NATO nomenclature) missile, whether in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Russia has fired the missile at Ukraine 23 times since August, a second senior Ukrainian official told Reuters. Kyiv also recorded two launches of the 9M729 by Moscow in 2022, according to this source. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The 9M729 led the United States to abandon the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Washington argued that the missile was a violation of the 1987 pact – during the Cold War – and could fly well beyond the 500 km limit set by it, which Russia denied.
An autonomy of 2,500 kilometers
The development of this missile was confirmed by France during a Foreign Ministry official’s hearing before the Defense Committee of the National Assembly in March 2019. This missile capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead has a range of 2,500 km, according to the “Missile Threat” website of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A military source said a 9M729 fired by Russia on October 5 traveled more than 1,200 kilometers to its point of impact in Ukraine.
kyiv supports the peace proposals of the White House tenant and it is necessary to exert maximum pressure against Russia to pressure it to end the conflict, he also told Reuters, stating that strengthening Ukraine’s long-range firepower would help convince Moscow. Ukraine asked Washington to provide it with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which were not banned by the INF because at the time they were only launched from the sea. Russia believes this would be a dangerous escalation.
The Kremlin pushes for escalation
The use of the 9M729 expands Russia’s arsenal of long-range weapons to attack Ukraine and is part of a pattern of Moscow sending threatening signals to Europe as Donald Trump seeks a peace deal, Western military analysts said.
Russia tested its nuclear-powered Bourevestnik cruise missile last week and said Wednesday it had also tested a nuclear-powered torpedo called Poseidon. The White House did not respond to questions about the 9M729 launches. Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the US military to resume nuclear weapons testing, citing “other countries'” programs in this area.
After the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km, Russia declared a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles. According to Western countries, Moscow had already deployed 9M729. On August 4, shortly before the launch of 9M729 against Ukraine, Russia declared that it would no longer limit the deployment sites of missiles whose range was affected by the INF and that could carry nuclear warheads.
First shot after meeting with Trump
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not provide details or dates about the 9M729 launches. The senior official said these began on August 21, less than a week after a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Reuters reviewed images of the rubble after a Russian attack in which a residential building was hit and four people were killed on October 5 in the Ukrainian village of Lapaivka, more than 600 kilometers from Russian territory.
In these images, two missile fragments marked 9M729 were visible, including a tube containing cables. Jeffrey Lewis, a distinguished global security researcher at Middlebury College, reviewed the images with analysts and said the tube, engine and engine skin matched what he expected of 9M729, while its marking made the match even more likely. Russia has several missiles capable of hitting Ukraine, notably the Kalibr (sea-launched) and the Kh-101 (air-launched), but Jeffrey Lewis believes the 9M729 has other advantages.
The INF, determined to resolve the Euromissile crisis, banned the launch of missiles from the ground because the launchers are mobile and relatively easy to conceal. According to Douglas Barrie, a military aeronautics researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Moscow could use the 9M729 to carry out ground attacks from safer launch sites deeper inside Russian territory. Russia would also be interested in testing the system on a battlefield in Ukraine, although 23 shots would involve a military target, he also said.
Source: BFM TV
