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Russia plans to conduct final tests of a new ballistic missile with a range of up to 800 kilometers by the end of the current year and could strike targets in western Ukraine as part of the trials, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official claimed on September 9.
Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, delivered the assessment during a recent meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council.
“According to our estimates, Russia plans to conduct final tests of a new type of ballistic missile with a range of up to 800 kilometers by the end of this year,” Skibitsky said.
Ukrainian intelligence believes Russia could attempt to hit targets in western Ukraine during the testing of the new unnamed missile, he added.
Skibitsky noted that Russia was intensifying missile and drone attacks against Ukraine in an effort to trigger a social and economic crisis.
Moscow is also seeking to boost production of ballistic missiles and extend their range, according to the general, who urged Ukraine’s backers to strengthen sanctions against Russia.
Over the past few months, Ukrainian intelligence services have issued a series of reports claiming that Russia is bolstering its arsenal of ballistic missiles by acquiring some from North Korea, producing new ones based on S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, and testing a new extended-range version of the Iskander-M. However, there is still no physical evidence to support any of these claims.
While these claims may be intended to solicit more support from Ukraine’s Western backers—particularly expensive and scarce interceptors for American-made Patriot air defense systems—Russia is indeed successfully expanding its production of ballistic missiles.
A recent report by The Economist said that Moscow is producing up to 100 such missiles a month, a figure that outmatches the monthly production of Patriot interceptors by the United States and other similar Western munitions, such as the Aster-30 interceptor for the French-Italian SAMP/T system, combined.
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