Russia is firing missiles made in Ukraine decades ago back into the country, a top general revealed

• Russian forces are using decades-old missiles made in Ukrainian factories, a top general said.
• Ukraine forfeited these missiles to Russia as part of a 1990s deal after the Soviet Union fell.

Russian forces are firing decades-old missiles originally made in Ukrainian factories back into the eastern European country, but without the warheads, a top general has revealed.

Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine's deputy intelligence chief, told The New York Times in a recent interview that over the last few weeks, Kyiv has discovered the wreckage of several Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles — designed to carry nuclear warheads — that were fired by Moscow's troops during various attacks.

These missiles, Skibitsky told the Times, had their warheads removed and replaced with a ballast in an attempt to trick Ukraine's air-defense systems with decoy missiles. But something else stood out. These missiles were actually made in Ukraine and handed over to Russia as part of an agreement during the 1990s.

After the Soviet Union broke up, Ukraine — which inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal at the time — forfeited its nuclear weapons to Russia by signing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in exchange for security guarantees. Missiles like the Soviet-era Kh-55, which was designed in the 1970s and included in the agreement, now appear to have been fired back into Ukraine during the ongoing war.

"All ballistic missiles, Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers were also handed over," Skibitsky told the Times. "Now, they are using Kh-55 missiles against us with these bombers. It would be better if we handed them over to the USA."

That Russia had been removing the warheads of nuclear-capable missiles and replacing them with ballasts was shared publicly by Britain's defense ministry in a late-November intelligence update. It said Moscow "almost certainly" hopes that this tactic will confuse Ukraine's air defenses, but it is unlikely to produce significant results.

"Russia is likely removing the nuclear warheads from aging nuclear cruise missiles and firing the unarmed munitions at Ukraine," Britain's defense ministry said at the time. A few days after the UK's assessment, a US senior defense official and US senior military official were asked by reporters about this Russian tactic. The senior defense official responded that they "expect" it to continue.

"It's certainly something that they're trying to do to mitigate the effects of the air defense systems that the Ukrainians are employing to a pretty good — decent effect," the senior military official said in a follow-up.

Britain's defense ministry said in its late-November update that this Russian tactic "highlights the level of depletion" in its long-range missile stock, an observation that Western officials and intelligence agencies have repeatedly noted for months.

Earlier in December, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the top US intelligence official, said Russian forces are burning through their munitions stockpiles faster than the country is able to replace them. US officials have said that because of this, Russia is turning to Iran for military assistance.

As recently as last week, a top UK envoy told reporters at the United Nations that Russia wants to obtain "hundreds" of ballistic missiles from Iran and is offering the country "unprecedented" military support in return.