Russia Launches Vacuum Cruise Missiles for Ukraine Air Defense Channel, US and Allies Focus on Provision of Supplies for Kyiv

Ukrainian officers are evacuating Russian missile debris. (Wikimedia Commons/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia fired an unarmed cruise missile designed to carry a nuclear warhead at targets in Ukraine, to deplete Kyiv's stockpile of air defenses, a senior US military official said.

The official, who declined to be named, was asked about a November 26 assessment by British military intelligence that said Russia had likely removed a nuclear warhead from a cruise missile and fired unarmored munitions into Ukraine.

The intelligence update cited open-source imagery showing the wreckage of an air-launched cruise missile fired at Ukraine, apparently designed in the 1980s as a nuclear delivery system.

Britain's defense ministry said a ballast may be replacing the warhead, a system that would still do damage through the missile's kinetic energy and unused fuel.

Asked about the statement, the US military official told Pentagon reporters: "It must be something they are trying to do to lessen the effect of the air defense systems that Ukraine is using", launch Reuters on November 30.

This is the first comment from a US official about the assessment.

The Pentagon further explained that the surge in Russian missile attacks on Ukraine was partly designed to deplete Kyiv's air defense supplies so that it could achieve dominance of the skies over the country.

Therefore, the United States and other allies are focusing on providing air defense supplies to Ukraine. They range from legacy Soviet-era systems to more modern Western systems.

A senior US defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity at Tuesday's briefing, acknowledged the Patriot missile defense system was one of many capabilities under consideration to help Kyiv protect against Russian missiles.

Previously, the United States has provided a variety of air defense capabilities to Ukraine, including the NASAMS air defense system as well as more than 1,400 Stinger and counter-artillery anti-aircraft systems to air surveillance radars.