Russia using inert nuke cruise missiles in Ukraine

 ISW:

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Russian forces are likely using inert Kh-55 cruise missiles in their massive missile strike campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure, further highlighting the depletion of the Russian military’s high-precision weapons arsenal. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported on November 26 that Russia is likely removing nuclear warheads from aging Kh-55 missiles and launching the missiles without warheads at targets in Ukraine.[13] The UK MoD suggested that Russian forces are likely launching the inert missiles as decoys to divert Ukrainian air defenses.[14] Ukrainian officials have previously reported that since mid-October, Russian forces have extensively used the non-nuclear variant of the missile system, the Kh-555, to conduct strikes on critical Ukrainian infrastructure.[15] The Russian military’s likely use of a more strategic weapon system in the role of a decoy for Ukrainian air defenses corroborates ISW’s previous reporting that the Russian military has significantly depleted its arsenal of high-precision missiles.[16] The use of more strategic weapons systems in support of the campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure suggests that the Russian military is heavily committed to the strike campaign and still mistakenly believes that it can generate strategically significant effects through that campaign.

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They are trying to overload the missile defense systems in Ukraine to get their other missiles through to hit infrastructure targets.  It is more evidence that Russia is depleting its weapon arsenals to try to get Ukraine to bend to its will.  This war has made Russia a much weaker power and has not achieved any of its main objectives.

See, also:

Ukraine news – live: Putin ‘forcing troops with chronic health problems into battle’

And:

 Putin's Russia 'could fall apart at the seams in next five years'

And:

 Putin’s weapon stock ‘depleted’ as Russia ‘firing old nuclear missiles with warheads removed’