cruise missiles russian

• Missiles of the World

3M-14 Kalibr (SS-N-30A)

The 3M14 Kalibr (NATO: SS-N-30A) is a Russian land attack cruise missile (LACM) and improved version of the 3M-14E “Club” LACM. The SS-N-30A has an estimated range of around 1,500 to 2,500 km and has become a mainstay in the Russian Navy’s ground-strike capabilities.

Kalibr (SS-N-30A) at a Glance

Kalibr Development

Although commonly referred to as the Kalibr cruise missile in media reports, the SS-N-30A is in fact just one part of the larger Kalibr family of Russian sea-launched missiles, which includes the SS-N-27 (Sizzler) anti-ship cruise missile and the 91R anti-submarine missile. All three Kalibr missiles share common Kalibr vertical launch system (VLS) tubes, which are quickly becoming a mainstay of the Russian Navy’s cruise missile launch capabilities. According the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, a “high ranking Russia defense industry official” said of Kalibr system in 2011:

“Russia plans to deploy KALIBR capability on all new design construction nuclear and non-nuclear submarines, corvettes, frigates, and larger surface ships. KALIBR provides even modest platforms, such as corvettes, with significant offensive capability and, with the use of the land attack missile, all platforms have a significant ability to hold distant fixed ground targets at risk using conventional warheads. The proliferation of this capability within the new Russian Navy is profoundly changing its ability to deter, threaten or destroy adversary targets. It can be logically assumed that KALIBR capability will be retrofitted on those larger Soviet legacy ships and submarines that undergo major overhauls and/or modernization.” 1

Service History

Export variants.

• Office of Naval Intelligence, The Russian Navy: A Historic Transition (Office of Naval Intelligence, December 2015): 33, http://www.oni.navy.mil/Portals/12/Intel%20agencies/russia/Russia%202015print.pdf?ver=2015-12-14-082038-923.
• Christopher P. Cavas, “Is Caspian Sea Fleet a Game-Changer?” Defense News , October 11, 2015, http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/naval/ships/2015/10/11/caspian-sea-russia-navy-missiles-attack-strike-military-naval-syria-frigate-corvette-lcs-littoral-combat-ship/73671188/
• USNORTHCOM and NORAD Posture Statement: Hearing before the Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces House of Representatives, 114th Cong, 2 (April 14, 2016) (statement by Admiral William E. Gortney, Commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command), http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS29/20160414/104621/HHRG-114-AS29-Wstate-GortneyB-20160414.pdf
• Vladimir Isachenkov, “Russia conducts war games involving numerous missile launches,” Associated Press, October 30, 2015, http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/10/30/russia-holds-war-games-involving-numerous-missile-launches
• Janes’s Weapons, Naval 2012-2013 (Janes Information Group, 2012), 15.
• “Russia Beefs Up Baltic Fleet Amid NATO Tensions: Reports”, Reuters, October 26, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-defence-baltic-sweden-idUSKCN12Q1HB.

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

What to know about the long-range cruise missile Russia says it fired

Russian naval forces launched long-range cruise missiles on Tuesday evening from the waters off Sevastopol, a port city in Russia-held Crimea, according to expert analysis of video verified by The Washington Post.

Russia said the 3M-14 Kalibr cruise missile attack destroyed a major Ukrainian arsenal.

Understanding the weapons that have drawn the world’s attention since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A v ideo filmed by a witness from the Sevastopol waterfront on Tuesday shows at least four projectiles being fired from the water. Geolocation of the video by The Post shows the missiles appear to be traveling northwest, away from the city. As the narrator recites the date and location, the camera pans to show his surroundings.

“We thought it was a plane flying,” the narrator says. “It’s normal that planes fly here. But shooting is something serious.”

Additional video filmed around the same time shows eight flares with long tails that appear to be airborne missiles flying over the Black Sea. Both videos were verified by The Post.

Footage shared by the Russian defense ministry on social media shows large fireballs emanating from a warship where the ministry said Russian forces had fired Kalibr cruise missiles toward military assets in Orzhev, a village outside of the city of Rivne. Rivne is located more than 200 miles west of Kyiv and would be within the range a 3M-14 Kalibr missile could travel if it was fired from Sevastopol.

The tightly cropped video first shows multiple large explosions in succession above a ship, while someone off camera counts, “First, second, third, fourth.” The video then cuts to a wider view of a sunset where the long tails of the eight missiles are visible. The Post was not able to verify the location of this launch.

What you need to know about hypersonic missiles, which Biden says Russia used against Ukraine

Video reportedly of a Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M small missile ship launching 8 Kalibr-NK cruise missiles from near Sevastopol. https://t.co/GcWqUpoXLh pic.twitter.com/VvU3l5yYCK — Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 22, 2022

“As a result of the strike, a large depot of weapons and military equipment of the Ukrainian troops, including those received from Western countries, was destroyed,” a statement on the ministry’s Telegram channel said.

U.S. officials said they could not confirm that the weapons had been used. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the deployment of the missiles or the destruction of an arsenal near Rivne.

The Post could not independently verify Russia’s claim that a weapons depot had been destroyed.

Ian Williams, deputy director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he was nearly positive the videos showed the launch of 3M-14 Kalibr cruise missiles.

“These are Russia’s long-range naval sea-based cruise missiles, similar to the U.S. Tomahawk,” he told The Post in an email. “They use satellite navigation along with some onboard inertial guidance.”

“This was almost certainly launched by the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the international security program at CSIS, said in an email. Kalibr missiles are “at the high end of Russian capabilities,” he added. “Russia uses them to attack the highest priority targets. They seem to be doing more of that in western Ukraine. It may be part of an effort to attack strategic targets, that is, targets that matter in the long war.”

The 3M-14 or SS-N-30A cruise missile , commonly referred to as the Kalibr missile, can be fired from ships or submarines toward land targets. It can travel a maximum range of about 1,550 miles, according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project.

3M14 Kalibr

Stabilizers

20 feet, 4 inches

6 foot person for scale

Pop-out wings

Control fins

The missiles, designed to penetrate the air defenses of stationary ground targets, fly autonomously and largely horizontally at low altitude, along preprogrammed waypoints. Their route can be updated midcourse via satellite communication. Cruise missiles can be highly accurate compared to ballistic missiles.

Low altitude

flight path,

by satellite

Approximate 1,550 mile range

Not to scale

3M14T Kalibr

flight path, parallel to

Low altitude flight path, parallel to ground

Tracks terrain

during flight

Route can be updated through satellites

The standard 3M14T land-attack missile reportedly contains a nearly 1,000-pound high explosive warhead. It is often used to attack storage facilities, command posts, seaports and airports.

Russia stuck barracks in the southern port city of Mykolaiv with a Kalibr missile earlier this month, the New York Times reported , killing at least eight Ukrainian soldiers who had been sleeping there. The region’s governor said at least 19 others were wounded.

A Pentagon official said at a background briefing Wednesday that the United States still assessed that Russia has “the vast majority” of its inventory of surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles.

Russia first used the SS-N-30A Kalibr missile in Syria in October 2015, when it launched 26 missiles from Russian naval vessels in the Caspian Sea, at forces fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

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How Russia Uses Low Tech in Its High-Tech Weapons

Investigators who examined the electronics in Russia’s newest cruise missiles and attack helicopters were surprised to find decades-old technology reused from earlier models.

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By John Ismay

WASHINGTON — As Russian forces fire precision-guided weapons at military and civilian targets in Ukraine, officers in Ukraine’s security service working with private analysts have collected parts of the crashed missiles to unravel their enemy’s secrets.

The weapons are top of the line in the Russian arsenal. But they contained fairly low-tech components, analysts who examined them said, including a unique but basic satellite navigation system that was also found in other captured munitions.

Those findings are detailed in a new report issued Saturday by Conflict Armament Research, an independent group based in Britain that identifies and tracks weapons and ammunition used in wars around the world. The research team examined the Russian matériel in July at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.

The report undercuts Moscow’s narrative of having a domestically rebuilt military that again rivals that of its Western adversaries.

But it also shows that the weapons Russia is using to destroy Ukrainian towns and cities are often powered by Western innovation , despite sanctions imposed against Russia after it invaded Crimea in 2014. Those restrictions were intended to stop the shipment of high-tech items that could help Russia’s military abilities.

“We saw that Russia reuses the same electronic components across multiple weapons, including their newest cruise missiles and attack helicopters, and we didn’t expect to see that,” said Damien Spleeters, an investigator for the group who contributed to the report. “Russian guided weapons are full of non-Russian technology and components, and most of the computer chips we documented were made by Western countries after 2014.”

How Russia obtained these parts is unclear. Mr. Spleeters is asking the manufacturers of the semiconductors how their goods ended up in Russian weapons, whether through legitimate transactions or straw-man purchases set up to skirt the sanctions.

The investigators analyzed the remains of three types of Russian cruise missiles — including Moscow’s newest and most advanced model, the Kh-101 — and its newest guided rocket, the Tornado-S. All of them contained identical components marked SN-99 that on close inspection, the team said, proved to be satellite navigation receivers that are critical for the missiles’ operation.

Mr. Spleeters said that Russia’s use of the same components pointed to bottlenecks in its supply chain and that restricting the supply of SN-99 components would slow Moscow’s ability to replenish its diminishing stockpile of guided weapons.

“If you want to have effective control and make sure that the Russians can’t get their hands on them, you need to know what the Russians need and what they use,” Mr. Spleeters said. “Then it’s important to know how they got it — what networks? What suppliers did they use?”

The investigators found an overall reliance by Russian engineers on certain semiconductors from specific Western manufacturers, not just in munitions but also in surveillance drones, communications equipment, helicopter avionics and other military goods.

“Over time, the Russians kept going back to the same manufacturers,” Mr. Spleeters said. “Once you know that, it gets easier to target those networks.”

“Looking at the computer chips in the same positions across multiple circuit boards, they were always made by the same manufacturers,” he said. “You’d have different dates of production, but always the same manufacturer.”

The report also revealed sharp differences between Russia’s top-shelf weapons and those that Ukrainian forces have received from the United States.

Warring parties often examine captured military hardware for intelligence value. But the investigators said they were shocked by Russia’s apparent indifference to having so many weapons that an adversary could potentially reverse-engineer.

“This is late 1990s or a mid-2000s level of technology at best,” Arsenio Menendez , a NASA contractor who reverse-engineers guided weapon components as a hobby, said after examining photos of Russian military electronics taken by the researchers. “It’s basically the equivalent of an Xbox 360 video game console, and it looks like it’s open to anyone who wants to take it apart and build their own copy of it.”

By comparison, the U.S. Defense Department has standards that military contractors must follow to make it harder for adversarial nation-states to build their own versions of captured weapons.

To protect this operational knowledge, which the Pentagon refers to with the anodyne term “critical program information,” military directives require the use of anti-tampering technologies meant to secure the lines of computer code and instructions that tell a weapon how to find its target.

Publicly released Pentagon directives provide only an outline of the program’s scope and requirements, and further details are classified. Military officials declined to discuss any anti-tampering technologies that the Defense Department may require.

“You can build a mesh around a computer chip that if probed will delete the contents,” Mr. Menendez said, adding that such protections were used in commercial goods like credit card readers to reduce theft and fraud.

The Russian navigation system resembles the open-source architecture of GPS receivers, which is not subject to federal restrictions regarding the sale and export of defense articles, he said.

“A team of college electrical engineering majors could build this,” he said.

The hodgepodge of parts that Russia uses to build its guided weapons may also help explain why its cruise missiles are sometimes not very accurate , Mr. Menendez said.

Errors made by nonstandard GPS units in processing satellite signals can ultimately cause a cruise missile to miss its target by a wide margin.

The Russian approach to weapons electronics appears to be “if you can’t keep up, steal the tech and do your best with it,” Mr. Menendez said.

John Ismay is a Pentagon correspondent in the Washington bureau and a former Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer. More about John Ismay

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

For residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city, daily Russian attacks have escalated fears  but have not brought life to a standstill. Here’s how a battered city  carries on.

The authorities in Poland and Germany have arrested at least five of their citizens  and accused them of spying for Russia or of offering to help Moscow commit violence on European soil, including a “possible attack” on the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The drone combat in Ukraine that is transforming modern warfare has begun taking a deadly toll on one of the most powerful symbols  of American military might — the tank — and threatening to rewrite how it will be used in future conflicts.

Resuming U.S. Military Aid: Weapons from the support package, considered “a lifeline” for Ukraine’s military , could be arriving on the battlefield within days . But experts say it could take weeks before there is a direct impact on the war . What would $60 billion buy ?

World Military Spending: The world spent more on military costs and weapons in 2023  than it had in 35 years, driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the threat of an expanded Russian invasion, according to an independent analysis.

New American Technology: Project Maven was meant to revolutionize modern warfare. But the conflict in Ukraine has underscored  how difficult it is to get 21st-century data into 19th-century trenches.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

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Russia Deploying Three Cruise Missile Carriers to Mediterranean Sea: Kyiv

Russia has deployed three more cruise missile carriers to the Mediterranean Sea with a total of 20 missiles, the Ukrainian Navy said on Wednesday.

"As of 07:00 on April 24, 2024, there are no enemy ships in the Black Sea, one enemy ship in the Sea of Azov, and seven enemy ships in the Mediterranean Sea, including three carriers of Kalibr cruise missiles with a total salvo of up to 20 missiles," the navy said on its Telegram channel.

Earlier this month, Lieutenant Commander Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, said Russia has been deploying ships in the Mediterranean Sea, including its Kalibr missile carriers, as part of a tactic to expand its military presence in other regions, not just in Ukraine.

In January, Kyiv's navy said Russia had deployed three ships in the Mediterranean, including two Kalibr carriers. In February, the Ukrainian Navy said there were two Russian ships in the Mediterranean Sea, including one vessel armed with up to eight Kalibr cruise missiles, still according to the Ukrainian Navy.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

"We should not forget that there is also a rather complex geopolitical situation there. We should not forget that the Russian Federation sees geopolitical competitors not only in Ukraine. Therefore, they, of course, are trying to spread their military presence in other regions where they have interests," said Pletenchuk in remarks published by RBC-Ukraine on April 21.

Pletenchuk added that Russia typically deploys ships on rotation, and that there is "the simultaneous presence of several units" in the Mediterranean Sea.

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"In general, they have a permanent naval operational connection there, so they have been present there for many years. What tasks they perform—that's a different story," he said.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's forces in the south of the country, said in early April that Russia has been limiting the use of its sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles due to logistical issues .

"For the Russians, it is now problematic both to deliver missiles and to service the missile installations that launch the Kalibrs, and to reload with Kalibrs," said Humeniuk in remarks reported by Ukrainian media on April 2.

Humeniuk, who has since been dismissed, said much of the logistics and infrastructure involved in firing the cruise missiles is based in the port city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea, where Russia stations part of its prized Black Sea Fleet.

The Black Sea Fleet has been targeted by Ukraine as it seeks to reverse Russian President Vladimir Putin 's 2014 annexation of the peninsula. Its flagship, Moskva , was attacked and sunk in April 2022. In September 2023, a missile attack by Ukraine on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol reportedly killed a number of leading officers and destroyed a Russian submarine.

"It is now very problematic for missile carriers to get there," Humeniuk added.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via [email protected].

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer

Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel joined Newsweek in 2021 and had previously worked with news outlets including the Daily Express, The Times, Harper's BAZAAR, and Grazia. She has an M.A. in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London, and a B.A. in Russian language at Queen Mary, University of London. Languages: English, Russian

You can get in touch with Isabel by emailing [email protected]  or by following her on X @isabelvanbrugen

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Ukraine Reports Wave of 51 Russian Cruise Missiles

• By VOA News

Russia resumed its winter bombardment strategy, pummeling several areas across Ukraine on Monday using its largest hypersonic and cruise missiles and killing at least four people while injuring 30 others.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called “facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.”

Western officials and analysts had warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles to target mainly Ukraine’s defense industry this winter, as opposed to the country’s infrastructure last winter. But so far, Russian strikes have frequently hit civilian areas.

Ukraine’s air force said the country’s air defenses shot down all eight drones launched by Russia, but only 18 of the 51 Russian cruise missiles deployed in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said the targets of the missiles included “critical infrastructure facilities” as well as civilian and military industrial sites. It also noted that not all missiles that were not intercepted reached their targets.

Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidency, said Russian missiles struck a shopping center and high-rise buildings in Kryvyi Rih, the south-central city that is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kuleba said one person was killed.

In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, officials said a Russian missile strike killed at least two people.

Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor of the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, said one person was killed in the city of Zmiiv.

The latest attacks came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg prepared to hold a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council Wednesday to discuss Russia’s recent drone and missile attacks, which have included larger numbers of drones and missiles since the beginning of the year.

“Almost every night. Tonight again. With obligatory destruction of civilian infrastructure and deliberate killing of civilians,” Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Monday. “Only because Russia is willing and able to do so. Only because Russia has many long-range missiles.”

Zelenskyy expressed confidence Sunday that Russia could be defeated and warned that the war in Ukraine has shown that Europe should develop a joint weapons production with Ukraine and build a sufficient weapons arsenal for its defense.

“Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defense of freedom. Its own capabilities to ensure defense. Its own potential that will allow all of Europe, or any part of it, to stand and preserve itself under any global situation,” he said.

Zelenskyy made the comments via a video link at a Stockholm defense conference, while Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom expressed his country’s commitment to support Kyiv.

“Sweden’s military, political, and economic support for Ukraine remains the Swedish government’s main foreign policy task in the coming years,” he posted during the event on X, formerly Twitter, the messaging app.

Japan also pledged its support to Kyiv Sunday when Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa made an unannounced visit, becoming the first official foreign visitor in the Ukrainian capital in 2024.

"Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine,” Kamikawa said through an interpreter at a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Kamikawa, who was forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv, condemned Russia’s missile and drone attacks on civilians, particularly on New Year’s Day, adding that her country would provide an additional $37 million to a NATO trust fund to help purchase drone-detection systems.

Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

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Russia fires 30 cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets; Ukraine says 29 were shot down

Kremlin-installed authorities in Crimea said eight train cars had derailed on Thursday due to an explosion. Russian state media reported the train was carrying grain. (May 18)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Police Press Office, fragments of a Russian rocket which was shot down by Ukraine’s air defence system are seen after the night rocket attack in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)

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In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, May 18, 2023, Russian soldiers prepare a 152 mm self-propelled gun Giatsint-S to fire toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Emergency workers load a body of a local resident, who was killed during a rocket attack, into a car in the village of Tsyrkuny, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Andrii Marienko)

A damaged private house and car are seen in the village of Tsyrkuny, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Andrii Marienko)

Investigators stand at derailed train cars carrying grain next to the railroad track, Crimea, Thursday, May 18, 2023. Quoting a source within the emergency services, state news agency RIA Novosti said that the incident occurred not far from the city of Simferopol. The Crimean Railway reported that the derailment was caused by “the interference of unauthorized persons” and that there were no casualties. (AP Photo)

Derailed train cars carrying grain are seen next to the railroad track, Crimea, Thursday, May 18, 2023. Quoting a source within the emergency services, state news agency RIA Novosti said that the incident occurred not far from the city of Simferopol. The Crimean Railway reported that the derailment was caused by “the interference of unauthorized persons” and that there were no casualties. (AP Photo)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired 30 cruise missiles against different parts of Ukraine early Thursday in the latest nighttime test of Ukrainian air defenses, which shot down 29 of them, officials said.

One person was killed and two were wounded by a Russian missile that got through and struck an industrial building in the southern region of Odesa, according to Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the region’s military administration.

Amid the recently intensified Russian air assaults, China said its special envoy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during talks in Kyiv earlier this week with Ukraine’s chief diplomat.

Beijing’s peace proposal has so far yielded no apparent breakthrough in the war . Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that the warring parties needed to “accumulate mutual trust” for progress to be made.

Ukrainian officials sought during the talks to recruit China’s support for Kyiv’s own peace plan, according to Ukraine’s presidential office. Zelenskyy’s proposal includes the restoration of his country’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian forces and holding Russian President Vladimir Putin legally accountable for the invasion in February 2022.

Leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations gathering in Japan on Thursday were expected to denounce Russia’s war and vow to keep helping Ukraine fight Moscow. They were to hold “discussions about the battlefield” in Ukraine, according to Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser.

A Western official said Russia had built “potentially formidable” defensive lines on Ukrainian territory, including extensive minefields, and had more than 200,000 troops along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, though it is unlikely to possess credible reserves.

As Ukraine receives sophisticated weapons systems from its Western allies, the Kremlin has started losing warplanes in areas previously deemed as safe, the official said, while Kyiv has proven able to shoot down Russia’s hypersonic ballistic missiles — the most advanced weapons in Moscow’s arsenal.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military intelligence.

Meanwhile, Kremlin-installed authorities in occupied Crimea reported the derailment of eight train cars Thursday because of an explosion, prompting renewed suspicions about possible Ukrainian saboteur activity behind Russian lines. Russian state media reported that the train was carrying grain.

The state news agency RIA Novosti, quoting a source within the emergency services, said the incident occurred not far from the city of Simferopol. The Crimean Railway company said the derailment was caused by “the interference of unauthorized persons” and that there were no casualties.

Ukraine officials refuse to comment on possible acts of sabotage. Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, Andriy Yusov, noted on Ukrainian television that Russian train lines “are also used to transport weapons, ammunition, armored vehicles.”

Overnight, loud explosions were heard in Kyiv as the Kremlin’s forces targeted the capital for the ninth time this month. It was a clear escalation after weeks of lull and before a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive using newly supplied advanced Western weapons.

Debris fell on two Kyiv districts, starting a fire at a garage complex. There was no immediate word about any victims, Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said in a Telegram post.

Ukraine also shot down two Russian exploding drones and two reconnaissance drones, according to the authorities.

The missiles were launched from Russian sea, air and ground bases, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian commander in chief, wrote on Telegram.

Several waves of missiles were aimed at areas of Ukraine between 9 p.m. Wednesday and 5:30 a.m. Thursday, he said.

Russian forces used strategic bombers from the Caspian region and apparently fired X-101 and X-55-type missiles developed during Soviet times, Kyiv authorities said. Russia then deployed reconnaissance drones over the capital.

In the last major air attack on Kyiv, on Tuesday, Ukrainian air defenses bolstered by sophisticated Western-supplied systems shot down all the incoming missiles, officials said.

That attack used hypersonic missiles, which repeatedly have been touted by Putin as providing a key strategic advantage. The missiles, which are among the most advanced weapons in Russia’s arsenal, are difficult to detect and intercept because of their hypersonic speed and maneuverability.

But sophisticated Western air defense systems, including American-made Patriot missiles, have helped spare Kyiv from the kind of destruction witnessed along the main front line in the country’s east and south.

While the ground fighting is largely deadlocked along that front line, both sides are targeting each other’s territory with long-range weapons.

The most intense fighting has focused on the battle for the city of Bakhmut and the surrounding area, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, with a Ukrainian military official claiming Thursday that the army advanced up to 1.7 kilometers (more than a mile) there over the previous day.

At the same time, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the millionaire owner of Russia’s private military contractor Wagner whose troops have spearheaded the battle, claimed that Russian army units had retreated from their positions north of the city. Prigozhin is a frequent critic of the Russian military.

At least seven Ukrainian civilians were killed, including a 5-year-old boy, and 18 people were wounded over the previous 24 hours, the presidential office said.

Also, two people were wounded in a drone attack in Russia’s southern Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, the regional governor reported Thursday.

In a Telegram post, Roman Starovoit claimed Ukrainian forces dropped an explosive device from a drone on a sports and recreation complex.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, two people were killed in Ukrainian shelling of the village of Nizhnee Berezovo, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, according to Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Jill Lawless in London and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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North Korea says it tested ‘super-large’ cruise missile warhead and new anti-aircraft missile

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Saturday it tested a “super-large” cruise missile warhead and a new anti-aircraft missile in a western coastal area as it expands military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and South Korea.

North Korean state media said the country’s missile administration on Friday conducted a “power test” for the warhead designed for the Hwasal-1 Ra-3 strategic cruise missile and a test-launch of the Pyoljji-1-2 anti-aircraft missile. It said the tests attained an unspecified “certain goal.”

Photos released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency showed at least two missiles being fired off launcher trucks at a runway.

North Korea conducted a similar set of tests Feb. 2, but at the time did not specify the names of the cruise missile or the anti-aircraft missile, indicating it was possibly seeing technological progress after testing the same system over weeks.

KCNA insisted Friday’s tests were part of the North’s regular military development activities and had nothing to do with the “surrounding situation.”

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dialing up his weapons demonstrations, which have included more powerful missiles aimed at the U.S. mainland and U.S. targets in the Pacific. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by expanding their combined military training and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

Cruise missiles are among a  growing collection of North Korean weapons  designed to overwhelm regional missile defenses. They supplement the North’s vast lineup of ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at the continental United States.

Analysts say anti-aircraft missile technology is an area where North Korea could benefit from its  deepening military cooperation with Russia , as the two countries align in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the U.S. The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of providing artillery shells and other equipment to Russia to help extend its warfighting in Ukraine.

The Associated Press

The Long Neptune Is Ukraine’s Favorite Missile For Swatting Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. More And More Are Rolling Off The Production Line.

The last Long Neptune raid may have failed. But more raids are coming.

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'Kommuna' in 2009.

The Russian navy rescue ship Kommuna is one lucky vessel . Launched in 1913, she has served in three fleets—the Russian imperial, Soviet and Russian—and survived two world wars.

And this weekend, she survived yet again—seemingly escaping major damage during a Ukrainian missile raid on the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s anchorage in Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea.

Satellite imagery from after the attack doesn’t show any obvious major damage to Kommuna ’s hull, deck or superstructure. If the aged vessel suffered any serious damage, it’s strictly internal—and impossible to verify.

Russian sailors shouldn’t assume they, or their 111-year-old rescue ship, are safe. The Ukrainians may have used their newest Neptune cruise missiles in the Sunday raid on Sevastopol. And many more of the ground-launched Neptunes are on the way.

Ukrainian missiles, drones and saboteurs have struck the Black Sea Fleet many time in Russia’s 26-month wider war on Ukraine, damaging or destroying more than a dozen of the fleet’s large ships plus its supporting air bases, air-defenses and command posts—not just in Sevastopol, but also in other Crimean ports and even in southern Russia.

When the Ukrainians fire missiles at the Black Sea Fleet, those missiles are usually Neptunes: new versions of the old Soviet Kh-35 cruise missile, which Ukrainian industry once built on behalf of the Soviet fleet.

The basic Neptune was just a prototype when Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022. Rushed into service, the first operational Neptune battery—which on paper includes six truck-mounted quad launchers plus a command vehicle and 48 missile reloads—fired its first shots in anger in April 2022, sinking the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva , 60 miles off the Ukrainian coast.

In sinking Moskva , the Ukrainian navy proved the Neptune—with its rocket booster, turbofan engine, radar seeker and 300-pound warhead—could work.

But the missile’s 17-foot body carried just enough fuel for a 120-mile flight, however. That was far enough to target Moskva as the cruiser’s crew brazenly sailed just 60 miles from the Ukrainian coast.

And as Russian warships retreated farther from the coast in the wake of Moskva ’s sinking, they became much harder targets. And hitting their main anchorages—Sevastopol and Feodosia in Crimea, Novorossiysk in southern Russia—became impossible for the Ukrainian navy’s Neptune crews. At 160 miles away, Sevastopol is the closest to Ukrainian lines.

So the Luch Design Bureau in Kyiv got to work producing what Ivan Gavrylyuk, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, called the “Long Neptune.” This longer Neptune has enough fuel for a 200-mile flight. At the same time, Luch tweaked the missile’s seeker to make it better at hitting targets on land and at sea.

The Long Neptunes struck for the first time in August, damaging a Russian air force S-400 air-defense battery in Crimea. And in a massive raid last month, Long Neptunes targeted four Russian ships in Sevastopol as well as port facilities and an oil depot.

The missile attack on Kommuna , a month later, may not have badly damaged the 111-year-old ship. But there are almost certainly going to be more attacks as the wider war grinds into its third year.

Ukrainian officials told U.S. officials they’ve increased Neptune production tenfold , meaning strike planners in Kyiv could soon have scores—potentially hundreds—of the missiles at their disposal.

If just a couple of dozen Neptunes could sink a cruiser and damage several other ships as well as air-defenses and support facilities, imagine what a hundred Neptunes could do.

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Russia to Push Ukraine Further Back if Kyiv Gets Long Range U.S. Missiles, Says Kremlin

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hold a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 12, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia will need to push Ukrainian forces further back and expand what it regards as a "buffer zone" if Kyiv takes delivery of advanced longer-range ATACM guided missile systems from the United States, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

The White House last October said it had provided Kyiv with a type of ATACMS capable of hitting targets up to 165 kilometres (102 miles) away. But a new U.S. package being prepared now after a long-delayed aid bill was approved by Congress is expected to include a longer 300 km (186-mile) range type.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kyiv would be receiving the long-range ATACMS and thanked Washington.

That raises the prospect of Ukraine using those missiles to strike targets deeper inside territory controlled by Russian forces, particularly in Russian-annexed Crimea.

The ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) are mounted on trucks and can travel at speeds of Mach 3, considerably faster than British and French cruise missiles currently in Ukraine's armoury.

When asked on Wednesday about the move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's stance, which it has set out several times, had not changed.

Photos You Should See - April 2024

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"Nothing changes in that regard," Peskov said.

The Kremlin said last month that the only way to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks - which it says includes four regions Moscow has annexed from Ukraine - is to have "a buffer zone" so that territory is beyond the range of Ukrainian fire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last year that Russian forces would respond to the delivery of longer-range Western weapons to Kyiv by trying to push Ukrainian forces further from its borders.

The U.S. delivery, which is unlikely to be public when it happens, may stipulate that Ukraine can not use ATACMS to strike targets within Russia itself.

Two U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday that the United States was preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the yet to be signed Ukraine bill.

(Reporting by ReutersWriting by Andrew Osborn Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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U.S. secretly sent long-range missiles to Ukraine for its fight with Russia

Official tells reuters that ukraine has since used them twice.

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The United States in recent weeks secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for use in its battle to fight off Russian invaders, and Ukraine has now used them twice, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The missiles were contained in a $300-million US military aid package for Ukraine that President Joe Biden approved on March 12, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official would not say how many of the missiles were sent.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, at a briefing for reporters, confirmed that a "significant number" of the missiles had been sent to Ukraine. "We will send more," he said.

He said Ukraine has committed to only use the weapons within its borders, not in Russia.

The missiles were used for the first time in the early hours of April 17, launched against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about 165 kilometres from the Ukrainian front lines, the official said.

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The official said Ukraine used the weapon a second time overnight against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.

Whether to send the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) with a range up to 300 kilometres was a subject of debate within the Biden administration for months. Mid-range ATACMS were supplied last September.

Pentagon initially opposed move

The Pentagon initially opposed the long-range missile deployment, fearing the loss of the missiles from the American stockpile would hurt U.S. military readiness. There were also concerns that Ukraine would use them to attack targets deep inside Russia.

Russia's use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January, despite U.S. public and private warnings not to do so, led to a change in heart, the U.S. official said.

Also a factor in U.S. decision-making was Russia's targeting of Ukraine's critical infrastructure, the official said.

"We warned Russia about those things," the official said. "They renewed their targeting."

In late January, the U.S. military found a way to satisfy their concerns about military readiness, which enabled the administration to move forward. They began acquiring new missiles coming off the Lockheed-Martin production line.

• Russia launches deadly drone attack on Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine
• Ukraine hits Russian refinery almost 800 km from border as drone sophistication increases

Biden met with his national security team in mid-February and agreed to accept the unanimous recommendation of his advisers to send the missiles to Ukraine. Involved in the discussion were Sullivan, the national security adviser; Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin; Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman C.Q. Brown.

The challenge at that point was to figure out how to pay for the missiles. The United States had exhausted all of its funding options and congressional gridlock stymied further aid.

An opportunity arose in March, when several Pentagon contracts came in under bid. Biden was able to use the difference to send $300 million US in assistance to Ukraine.

Biden told his team to include the long-range ATACMS in this funding package, but to do so secretly in order to maintain operational security and the element of surprise for Ukraine, the official said.

Drones hit 2 Rosneft-owned depots

In Russia's Smolensk region, drones sent by Ukraine struck two Rosneft-owned oil depots in an overnight attack on Wednesday.

Video shows fire at Russian oil depot

Russian regional officials said that fires had broken out at the facilities following the drone attack.

As the emergency services worked on sites, some residents were evacuated from parts of Lipetsk in Russia's southwest after a drone there fell on an industrial park.

There were no casualties reported in the attack, Vasily Anokhin, the governor of the Smolensk region, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

With Russia's full-scale invasion in its third year, Ukraine has increasingly focused on targeting Russian oil and energy facilities with long-range drones.

Kyiv considers oil refineries as legitimate targets, despite calls from allies led by the U.S. to halt strikes in order to avoid Russian retaliation and hikes in global oil prices.

As of the end of March, around 14 per cent of Russia's primary oil refining capacity had been knocked out by Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Reuters calculations.

• Inside an overnight mission with a Ukrainian drone unit stalking Russian troops
• Ukraine says it sunk a Russian warship in Black Sea in drone attack

Energy grid attacks have been a feature of the ongoing war, with Russia by March 2022 having gained control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

This year, Russia has stepped up combined missile and drone strikes targeting Ukraine's grid system since mid-March.

"This has become an issue that is threatening international peace and security," International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi told CBC's Rosemary Barton Live in an interview that aired on April 21.

Ukraine's energy grid has received emergency power imports from Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova as the system struggles to meet demand amid the attacks, national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Monday.

The European Union and Ukraine linked electricity grids after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The link was designed to open avenues for emergency help in the face of Russian strikes on critical infrastructure.

With files from CBC News

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Russian air strike took out TV tower in Ukraine's Kharkiv, Zelenskiy says

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Reporting by Vitalii Hnidyi in Kharkiv and Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alison Williams and Ron Popeski

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The head of the Belarusian security service said on Thursday it had thwarted an attack on the capital Minsk by drones launched from Lithuania, Russian state news agencies said.

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Sweden will move ahead with plans to send troops to Latvia as part of NATO's deployment in the Baltic countries, which share land borders with Russia and its ally Belarus, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday.