The Grom-2 launcher during a military parade in honor of the Independence Day of Ukraine in 2018. By spoilt.exile via Wikimedia.
Russia has struck four Ukrainian defense industrial facilities producing Sapsan ballistic missiles, causing “colossal” damage and stalling Kiev’s ballistic missile program, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on August 14.
In a statement, the FSB said the special operation, carried out in cooperation with the Russian Defense Ministry, targeted chemical and mechanical plants in Pavlograd, Dneptropetrovsk Region, as well as the “Zvezda” plant and State Scientific Research Institute of Chemical Products in Shostka, Sumy Region.
The destruction of all targeted facilities was confirmed by satellite imagery and open-source intelligence, the security service added.
According to the FSB, Ukraine, with NATO’s permission, had planned to use Sapsan missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory.
“Thanks to the joint efforts of the FSB and Russian Armed Forces, Ukraine’s missile program plans have been thwarted,” the statement reads.
The security service described the damage to Ukraine’s military industrial complex as “colossal,” and said it far surpassed Kiev’s “Spiderweb” operation that targeted strategic Russian aviation in early June.
The development of the Sapsan, also known as Hirm and Grom, can be traced back to the early 1990s. However, serious work on the system began after 2013, with Ukraine’s Pivdenne Design Office leading the project. After the outbreak of the conflict in the Donbass region in 2014, the project received more support. In 2016, reports of a Saudi partnership emerged online.
The Sapsan transporter erector launcher was showcased in 2018 during a parade in Kiev. Each vehicle could carry and launch two missiles.
The tactical ballistic missile, which was still in development when Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, is said to have a maximum range of 700 kilometers and a warhead weighing 480 kg. Several guidance systems were reportedly being developed for the missile, with the main one utilizing satellite-aided inertial navigation.
The FSB published a map outlining the Sapsan’s range, with a large part of Western Russia, including the capital Moscow, being within the kill zone.
Click to see full-size image. (FSB)
An official from the security service later told TASS that Ukraine was recently working on the system with financial support from Germany and assistance from foreign specialists.
“It has been established that with Germany’s financial support and the assistance of foreign specialists the development and production of the Sapsan medium-range operational-tactical missile systems capable of striking deep into the territory of the Russian Federation has been carried out at defense enterprises in the Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions of Ukraine,” the unmanned official said.
Last May, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin will help Kiev produce long-range weapons.
The German Defense Ministry also stated at the time that Berlin would finance the production of long-range weapons systems in Ukraine and that the “first of these systems could be deployed in the Ukrainian armed forces in just a few weeks.”
Since the start of the special military operation, the Russian MoD has announced the interception of Sapsan missiles on multiple occasions. However, previous Ukrainian attacks with the missile were likely carried out as tests in the framework of the development process.
The Russian operation was, without a doubt, a major blow to Ukraine, which is attempting to escalate ahead of the upcoming summit between President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donlad Trump in Alaska. With the destruction of the Sapsan project, Kiev is now way less capable of escalating.
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but where is the actual video of the destruction
good ukranazis are not allowed to have these weapons.