International- Russia said on Thursday that it's obtained intact parts of a downed Storm Shadow missile.
- A Russian politician claimed the missile parts were being studied by Moscow's defense experts.
Russia claimed on Thursday that it's secured the intact parts of a Storm Shadow missile brought down in Zaporizhzhia, which could possibly provide Moscow insight into a British-made weapon devastating its forces in Ukraine.
"The Storm Shadow missile, shot down by Russian forces in the Zaporizhzhia region, was brought to Moscow for study," Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Describing the missile as a "trophy," TASS wrote that Russian authorities had already received the Storm Shadow parts and are inspecting them.
The outlet reported that the materials were obtained by Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who now runs a science and technology center attached to forces deployed in Ukraine.
Rogozin said Ukraine shelled the area around the downed missile and sent troops to block Russian forces from securing the Storm Shadow parts, per TASS. But he claimed that these efforts were "promptly suppressed," according to the outlet.
On Thursday, Rogozin's Telegram channel released a video of Russian troops loading a vehicle with munition parts that resemble those of a Storm Shadow missile.
While the missile was clearly damaged, its components appeared to be largely intact. Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
"The two-day operation to evacuate the captured Storm Shadow has been successfully completed," read a caption for the Telegram post. "The missile has just been handed over to one of our defense enterprises."
Rogozin claimed that Russian authorities would "decipher" how the missile is controlled and share the information with the Kremlin's air defense officials.
He wrote that he hoped the new intel would allow Russia to "find an antidote for our air defense" and counter Ukraine's use of Storm Shadows.
Storm Shadow missiles, provided to Kyiv by the UK Ministry of Defense, have a range of more than 155 miles and can evade detection from air defense systems by flying low. They are typically fired from an aircraft — Ukraine launches them from Su-24 Fencer jets.
Their extended range — more than triple that of the US-provided HIMARS launchers in Ukraine — has allowed Kyiv to launch precision attacks on important targets deep into Russian-held territory. And an onboard infrared system allows the missile to seek out and recognize its target.
Both Ukraine and the UK have said in the last two months that Storm Shadow missiles are striking their targets with extreme precision and accuracy. "Its accuracy and ability to deliver successfully the payload, as sent and designed by the Ukrainians, has been almost without fault," UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on June 26.
On the other hand, Russia's Ministry of Defense has played off the missiles as "over-hyped," describing them as "British scrap metal" to be melted down and reused for military manufacturing.
"And microchips salvaged from the missiles can probably be installed in Russian "washing machines," about which Ursula von der Leyen was not so long ago telling fairy tales," the ministry wrote on Wednesday, hitting back at the European Commission chief's September comment that Russia was using chips from dishwashers to fix their weapons.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Translation provided by Elliot Napier