russia cruise missiles

• Missiles of the World

3M-14 Kalibr (SS-N-30A)

The 3M14 Kalibr (NATO: SS-N-30A) is a Russian land attack cruise missile (LACM) and improved version of the 3M-14E “Club” LACM. The SS-N-30A has an estimated range of around 1,500 to 2,500 km and has become a mainstay in the Russian Navy’s ground-strike capabilities.

Kalibr (SS-N-30A) at a Glance

Kalibr Development

Although commonly referred to as the Kalibr cruise missile in media reports, the SS-N-30A is in fact just one part of the larger Kalibr family of Russian sea-launched missiles, which includes the SS-N-27 (Sizzler) anti-ship cruise missile and the 91R anti-submarine missile. All three Kalibr missiles share common Kalibr vertical launch system (VLS) tubes, which are quickly becoming a mainstay of the Russian Navy’s cruise missile launch capabilities. According the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, a “high ranking Russia defense industry official” said of Kalibr system in 2011:

“Russia plans to deploy KALIBR capability on all new design construction nuclear and non-nuclear submarines, corvettes, frigates, and larger surface ships. KALIBR provides even modest platforms, such as corvettes, with significant offensive capability and, with the use of the land attack missile, all platforms have a significant ability to hold distant fixed ground targets at risk using conventional warheads. The proliferation of this capability within the new Russian Navy is profoundly changing its ability to deter, threaten or destroy adversary targets. It can be logically assumed that KALIBR capability will be retrofitted on those larger Soviet legacy ships and submarines that undergo major overhauls and/or modernization.” 1

Service History

Export variants.

• Office of Naval Intelligence, The Russian Navy: A Historic Transition (Office of Naval Intelligence, December 2015): 33, http://www.oni.navy.mil/Portals/12/Intel%20agencies/russia/Russia%202015print.pdf?ver=2015-12-14-082038-923.
• Christopher P. Cavas, “Is Caspian Sea Fleet a Game-Changer?” Defense News , October 11, 2015, http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/naval/ships/2015/10/11/caspian-sea-russia-navy-missiles-attack-strike-military-naval-syria-frigate-corvette-lcs-littoral-combat-ship/73671188/
• USNORTHCOM and NORAD Posture Statement: Hearing before the Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces House of Representatives, 114th Cong, 2 (April 14, 2016) (statement by Admiral William E. Gortney, Commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command), http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS29/20160414/104621/HHRG-114-AS29-Wstate-GortneyB-20160414.pdf
• Vladimir Isachenkov, “Russia conducts war games involving numerous missile launches,” Associated Press, October 30, 2015, http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/10/30/russia-holds-war-games-involving-numerous-missile-launches
• Janes’s Weapons, Naval 2012-2013 (Janes Information Group, 2012), 15.
• “Russia Beefs Up Baltic Fleet Amid NATO Tensions: Reports”, Reuters, October 26, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-defence-baltic-sweden-idUSKCN12Q1HB.

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

What to know about the long-range cruise missile Russia says it fired

Russian naval forces launched long-range cruise missiles on Tuesday evening from the waters off Sevastopol, a port city in Russia-held Crimea, according to expert analysis of video verified by The Washington Post.

Russia said the 3M-14 Kalibr cruise missile attack destroyed a major Ukrainian arsenal.

Understanding the weapons that have drawn the world’s attention since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A v ideo filmed by a witness from the Sevastopol waterfront on Tuesday shows at least four projectiles being fired from the water. Geolocation of the video by The Post shows the missiles appear to be traveling northwest, away from the city. As the narrator recites the date and location, the camera pans to show his surroundings.

“We thought it was a plane flying,” the narrator says. “It’s normal that planes fly here. But shooting is something serious.”

Additional video filmed around the same time shows eight flares with long tails that appear to be airborne missiles flying over the Black Sea. Both videos were verified by The Post.

Footage shared by the Russian defense ministry on social media shows large fireballs emanating from a warship where the ministry said Russian forces had fired Kalibr cruise missiles toward military assets in Orzhev, a village outside of the city of Rivne. Rivne is located more than 200 miles west of Kyiv and would be within the range a 3M-14 Kalibr missile could travel if it was fired from Sevastopol.

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The tightly cropped video first shows multiple large explosions in succession above a ship, while someone off camera counts, “First, second, third, fourth.” The video then cuts to a wider view of a sunset where the long tails of the eight missiles are visible. The Post was not able to verify the location of this launch.

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Video reportedly of a Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M small missile ship launching 8 Kalibr-NK cruise missiles from near Sevastopol. https://t.co/GcWqUpoXLh pic.twitter.com/VvU3l5yYCK — Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 22, 2022

“As a result of the strike, a large depot of weapons and military equipment of the Ukrainian troops, including those received from Western countries, was destroyed,” a statement on the ministry’s Telegram channel said.

U.S. officials said they could not confirm that the weapons had been used. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the deployment of the missiles or the destruction of an arsenal near Rivne.

The Post could not independently verify Russia’s claim that a weapons depot had been destroyed.

Ian Williams, deputy director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he was nearly positive the videos showed the launch of 3M-14 Kalibr cruise missiles.

“These are Russia’s long-range naval sea-based cruise missiles, similar to the U.S. Tomahawk,” he told The Post in an email. “They use satellite navigation along with some onboard inertial guidance.”

“This was almost certainly launched by the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the international security program at CSIS, said in an email. Kalibr missiles are “at the high end of Russian capabilities,” he added. “Russia uses them to attack the highest priority targets. They seem to be doing more of that in western Ukraine. It may be part of an effort to attack strategic targets, that is, targets that matter in the long war.”

The 3M-14 or SS-N-30A cruise missile , commonly referred to as the Kalibr missile, can be fired from ships or submarines toward land targets. It can travel a maximum range of about 1,550 miles, according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project.

3M14 Kalibr

Stabilizers

20 feet, 4 inches

6 foot person for scale

Pop-out wings

Control fins

The missiles, designed to penetrate the air defenses of stationary ground targets, fly autonomously and largely horizontally at low altitude, along preprogrammed waypoints. Their route can be updated midcourse via satellite communication. Cruise missiles can be highly accurate compared to ballistic missiles.

Low altitude

flight path,

by satellite

Approximate 1,550 mile range

Not to scale

3M14T Kalibr

flight path, parallel to

Low altitude flight path, parallel to ground

Tracks terrain

during flight

Route can be updated through satellites

The standard 3M14T land-attack missile reportedly contains a nearly 1,000-pound high explosive warhead. It is often used to attack storage facilities, command posts, seaports and airports.

Russia stuck barracks in the southern port city of Mykolaiv with a Kalibr missile earlier this month, the New York Times reported , killing at least eight Ukrainian soldiers who had been sleeping there. The region’s governor said at least 19 others were wounded.

A Pentagon official said at a background briefing Wednesday that the United States still assessed that Russia has “the vast majority” of its inventory of surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles.

Russia first used the SS-N-30A Kalibr missile in Syria in October 2015, when it launched 26 missiles from Russian naval vessels in the Caspian Sea, at forces fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

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Russia Isn’t Going to Run Out of Missiles

Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary by Ian Williams

Published June 28, 2023

Long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have been a prominent and persistent aspect of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Earlier this year, the CSIS report Putin’s Missile War found that Russian missile attacks in 2022 had caused major damage to Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure but had failed to achieve the kind of decisive strategic effects that Moscow had likely sought. Into 2023, Russia has persisted in expending expensive, long-range missiles in regular attacks against a variety of civilian and military objects across Ukraine. The focus of these strikes regularly shifts and their intensity has ebbed and flowed, as has the quality of employed munitions.

However, Russia’s continued strike campaign in 2023 has made one thing quite clear: it is unrealistic to expect Russia to ever “run out” of missiles. Despite sanctions and export controls, it appears likely that Russia will be able to produce or otherwise acquire the long-range strike capacity necessary to inflict significant damage upon Ukraine’s people, economy, and military. Ukraine’s air defenses have performed remarkably well under challenging circumstances. Nevertheless, the Russian military has continued trying to identify gaps and seams to exploit to gain an advantage.

There is no one-off fix for this problem. Sanctions and export controls can, at most, limit the quantity and quality of strike assets Russia can acquire. The most reliable counter is sustained Western support for Ukrainian air defense forces for the duration of the conflict. The continued, steady provision of air defenses into the foreseeable future will save lives, reduce costs of future reconstruction, and help end the war more quickly by enabling Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the face of superior Russian airpower. Moreover, providing air defenses has also forced Western countries to scale up production of these systems, which could have long-term benefits for Western defense readiness.

Russia’s Latest Assault

In May, Russia renewed its long-range drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. This surge in activity came after a relative period of lull in March and April, following Moscow’s furious yet unsuccessful strike campaign aimed at collapsing Ukraine’s electric grid last winter. Unlike that singularly focused effort, Russia’s recent spate of missile and drone attacks since May has been aimed at a seemingly broader and less predictable target set.

For instance, Russia has used some of its most advanced and expensive missiles in a failed bid to destroy one of Ukraine’s U.S.-German-provided Patriot batteries protecting Kyiv. Moscow likely believed that the prompt destruction of a Patriot battery—one of the costliest weapon systems Ukraine has received—would discourage continued Western military aid. However, this line of attack backfired as the Patriot battery survived nearly unscathed. The Patriot battery reportedly shot down 100 percent of the 34 Iskander and Kinzhal quasi-ballistic missiles Russia has fired at Kyiv as of June 28, weapons that Moscow had once touted as impervious to air and missile defenses.

In other instances, assessing what Russia has been aiming at has been more challenging since most projectiles get shot down. Targets, though, seem to include a mix of critical infrastructure, command and control installations, and other military and civilian targets. Kyiv has borne the brunt of Russia’s latest assault. Still, Russia has, in more recent weeks, expanded its scope to other areas, possibly looking to exploit areas of Ukraine where air defense is thinner. On June 10, Russia struck a Ukrainian air base in Poltava with a complex barrage of eight ballistic and cruise missiles and as many as 35 Shahed-36 one-way attack munitions. Ukraine says it shot down only two cruise missiles, while 15 Shahed-136s made it through Ukrainian defenses. Russia has not carried out a major missile attack on a Ukrainian air base since the early months of the war, and likely that the area lacked the same level of air defense as Kyiv. Poltava probably lacks protection from Patriot, currently Ukraine’s only defense against ballistic missiles.

As with much of Russia’s air campaign against Ukraine, civilians have suffered the most. In many cases, damage to civilian areas has resulted from falling debris from intercepted missiles. Although much less destructive than allowing a missile to strike its target, debris from intercepts can still kill, maim, start fires, and otherwise damage property. In other instances, Russia appears to be attacking civilians directly. On June 13, Russia launched a cruise missile attack against Kryvyi Rih . At least one of the four missiles that got through Ukraine’s defenses struck an apartment building, killing 11.

Overall, the performance of Ukraine’s air defenses has steadily improved since the start of the war, particularly against Russian cruise missiles. Throughout much of Russia’s winter campaign against Ukraine’s electric grid, Ukraine’s Air Force reported intercepting around 70–80 percent of Russian cruise missiles. Since May, Ukraine has reported intercepting around 90 percent of Russian cruise missiles and drones (see below). Ukraine has reported downing nearly 80 percent of air and ground-launched ballistic missile attacks nationwide and 100 percent of ballistic missiles attacking areas where ballistic missile defenses (Patriot) are present. Ukraine only has two Patriot batteries. As such, most of Ukraine lacks any protection from ballistic missiles, as shown by the June 10 Iskander-M strike in Poltava and the June 22 Kh-47 strikes around Dnipro, which Ukraine could not stop.

While lacking the focus of prior phases of Russia’s long-range strike campaign, Russia’s current objectives seem primarily aimed at keeping Ukraine off balance during its counteroffensive operations in the South, to force Ukraine to divert air defense capacity to defend its cities. Given the limited supply of Ukrainian air defenses, a generalized and unpredictable strike campaign forces Ukraine to make difficult tradeoffs between defending its cities and critical infrastructure and providing thicker air defense for its troops on the front lines.

SHORAD Concerns

As Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive has gotten underway, observers are concerned that Ukraine is facing a gap in short-range air defenses (SHORAD) for its advancing troops. Russia’s use of attack helicopters like the Ka-52 armed with laser-guided 9K121 “Vikhr” missiles has been of particular concern to attack advancing Ukrainian armor. These missiles have a range of upwards of 12 kilometers, outside the range of many of Ukraine’s SHORAD systems like Strela, Stinger, StarStreak, and Igla variants. Ukraine’s medium-range air defenses, like IRIS-T, Buk, and NASAMs, are stretched between frontline duty and defending rear areas against long-range attacks. UK Defence Intelligence recently noted that Russia had deployed 20 additional attack helicopters to Berdyansk, and that “in the constant contest between aviation measures and countermeasures,” Russia had temporarily gained the upper hand.

Ukrainian Air Defense Performance by Threat Type, May 1–June 26, 2023

It is unclear how long Russia will be able to maintain this advantage, however. Ukraine already seems to be adapting, claiming to have shot down six Ka-52s and one Mi-24 attack helicopter since June 16. Moreover, Wagner forces shot down as many as seven additional Russian helicopters during its recent mutiny, including one Ka-52. To be sure, Russia’s attack helicopters are not a plentiful asset. Russia started the war with around 150 Ka-52s. It is doubtful that all of these were mission capable. In October 2022, UK Defence Intelligence estimated Russia to have had no more than 90 Ka-52s in service at the war’s commencement. Based on visual analysis by independent observers and reports from the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia has lost as many as 60 Ka-52s since the start of the war from enemy fire as well as accidents. The Ka-52 problem is not insurmountable, and Russia’s attack helicopter force cannot sustain the rate of losses they have sustained over the past week. However, ensuring that Ukraine has adequate medium- and short-range air defenses to support its counteroffensive over the coming months will be vital to its success. Moreover, additional long-range strike assets, such as Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles, would enable Ukraine to better target the bases Russia is using to house and maintain its attack helicopters, many of which are within the borders of Ukraine.

Russia’s Evolving Strike Complex

As early as March 2022, there was much conjecture that Russia’s supply of precision-guided missiles was dwindling . These reports may not have been entirely off the mark. Russia probably did quickly expend the portion of its long-range missile that it had initially allocated to its “special military operation.” Nevertheless, Russia maintained a steady drumbeat of missile strikes against Ukraine, likely by pulling munitions allocated to other theaters and drawing down its strategic reserves. Moreover, Russia has repurposed various surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles for land attack roles. Russia has also continued to manufacture missiles throughout the war, and evidence suggests that most (possibly all) Russian cruise missiles it has in its current inventory come from postwar production.

The exhaustion of prewar missile stockpiles has impacted the composition of current Russian strike salvos. Compared with previous phases of Russia’s air war, the composition of Russian missile attacks has trended away from high-end missile systems like cruise missiles toward cheaper, less capable “low-end” systems like Shahed-136 one-way attack munitions (see below). In the first three months of 2023, during the tail end of Russia’s strike campaign against Ukraine’s electric grid, Shahed-136s accounted for around 40 percent of long-range projectiles fired at Ukraine. Since April, 61 percent of long-range munitions Russia has employed have been Shahed-136 one-way attack munitions. Compared to cruise and ballistic missiles, Shahed-136 are generally easier to shoot down and more vulnerable to cheaper defenses like the German-made Flakpanzer Gepard and other gun-based systems. The Shahed-136’s warhead weight is also only between that of a cruise missile like Kh-101, and therefore causes less damage when they do make it through defenses.

However, the decline in the quality of Russian long-range strike salvos is unlikely to continue. Rather, the overall composition of Russian strike packages will likely level off as Russian missile use becomes fully tethered to how many missiles it can produce. But it is improbable that Russian production of higher-end cruise and ballistic missiles will ever fall to zero. Despite Western sanctions and export controls of key microelectronic components, Russia has been able to find workarounds to continue producing missiles. In May, Ukrainian intelligence estimated that Russia currently manufactures around 60 cruise missiles, five Iskander ballistic missiles, and two Kinzhals monthly. In June, President Zelensky noted that Ukraine continues to find Western-made microelectronic components amongst the wrecks of Russian missiles. These components are likely finding their way into Russia via friendly third parties such as China.

The United States and Europe can and should seek ways to further restrict the flow of dual-use tech components to Russia. It is, however, unrealistic to expect they will be able to completely deprive Russia of the components it needs to manufacture missiles. Sanctions and export controls have never prevented proliferation by a determined state, let alone one with Russia’s size and economic reach. What they can do is make it harder and more expensive, which would limit the number of missiles it can produce. Regardless of how many missiles the Kremlin produces today, it wishes it could make more. Export controls can help limit that potential.

But the upshot is that Russia will continue having the capacity to build missiles and drones and will continue to fire them at Ukraine. This reality will not change until the war ends. Meanwhile, active air defense remains the most reliable counter to Russian missile attacks, requiring continued support and replenishment from Ukraine’s international partners.

Composition of Russian Missile Attacks on Ukraine, January 1–March 31, 2023

Composition of Russian Missile Attacks on Ukraine, April 1–June 22, 2023

Folks Are Getting It

The good news is that Ukraine’s partners seem to understand the air defense imperative and are responding. Ukraine’s most recent military aid packages have been heavy on air defenses.

Since May, the United States announced it would supply Ukraine’s Armed Forces with additional rounds for NASAMS and Patriot, Avenger air defense and Stinger missiles, and HAWK air defense systems. The United States is also supplying Ukraine with older AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, which have been made compatible with Ukraine’s Buk M2 systems, for which Ukraine has ample launchers though few remaining interceptor missiles.

On June 15, the United Kingdom announced a new multinational fund that would be used to procure “hundreds of short and medium range air defense systems” for Ukraine, noting these deliveries would consist “largely of Soviet-era missiles.” The United Kingdom had also announced in mid-May that it would provide additional air defenses to Ukraine, though it did not specify the type.

French president Macron also recently announced that a French/Italian-provided SAMP/T system is now active in Ukraine, protecting “key installations and lives.” Germany delivered the second of four promised IRIS-T SLM air defense systems in April, along with an additional TRML 4D radar. Berlin also announced on June 24 that it plans to provide Ukraine with 45 more Gepard Flakpanzer systems, more than doubling the number Ukraine currently operates.

These contributions to Ukraine, while reducing national stockpiles of munitions in the short term, have the added benefit of bolstering the production lines of several key air defense systems. Having warm production lines for these complex systems could boost U.S. and allied defense readiness in the long term over and above the risks of near-term drawdowns.

For instance, the U.S. Army expects Stinger production to rise by 50 percent by 2025. As part of that ramp-up, at least one critical component of the Stinger has been redesigned in such a way as to overcome current supply chain issues. The United States is also increasing the production of Patriot systems. There are also significant increases in NASAMS production, and the United Kingdom recently announced it was restarting production of its Starstreak air defense system.

No Permanent Fix

Looking ahead, there is no simple solution to the Russian missile problem. Russia will continue to produce and acquire missiles and one-way attack munitions and use them to target Ukraine. Sanctions and export control can make this harder and costlier for the Russians, but they will not stop them. As long as the war continues, Ukraine must maintain a robust air and missile defense, which will require steady support from the United States and its many other international partners.

To this end, Western defense industrial capacity for everything from air defense interceptors to precision-guided munitions needs to be scaled up and new supply chains built. This process will not only help the United States maintain the steady support that Ukraine needs to win the war as quickly as possible, but it will also leave the United States and its allies in a stronger position to deter and defeat future threats.

Ian Williams is a fellow in the International Security Program and deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Ian Williams

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Parts made by U.S. companies used to build Russian cruise missiles

Simon Ostrovsky Simon Ostrovsky

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/parts-made-by-u-s-companies-used-to-build-russian-cruise-missiles

Correction: A typo in the transcript misidentified Iryna Nikitska in one instance. We regret the error.

Ukraine suffered another barrage of Russian missile strikes on Friday, part of a deadly summer of attacks. But as NewsHour special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky discovered, many of the Russian-made cruise missiles wouldn’t be able to find their targets without the help of American companies. His investigation was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Again today, Ukraine suffered a barrage of Russian missile strikes, part of a deadly summer of attacks.

But as "NewsHour" special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky has discovered, many of the Russian-made cruise missiles wouldn't be able to find their targets without the help of American companies.

His investigation is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Simon Ostrovsky:

In a village about 25 miles north of the Western Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, Ukrainian military officers show us the remains of a recent Russian missile strike against their country.

It's a scene that's become all too familiar in over 500 days of Russia's full-scale war. This guided Kh-101 missile didn't hurt anyone. It was shot down by one of the Western air defense systems donated to Ukraine in recent months.

These officers' job is to collect the fragments and bring them back to the capital for analysis. They have granted NewsHour unprecedented access to film their work, so we can find out for ourselves where the components that help these missiles find their targets come from.

So this looks like it might be part of the flight control unit. This will be really interesting to get a closer look at once it's brought back to the laboratory and cleaned up a little bit, because it's motherboards like these that we often find Western-made microchips in.

This is Iryna Nikitska. She runs a hospital lab on the other side of Ukraine in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Last month, she lost the thing most dear to her in a Russian missile strike.

Iryna Nikitska, Mother (through interpreter):

I had an only daughter. She lived. I raised her. I educated her. They took away my meaning of life.

On June 12, a barrage of missiles, including Kh-101s, rained down on the city, hitting this apartment building, where Iryna's daughter, Ksenia Edelman, and her daughter's husband, David Epelman, slept.

Iryna Nikitska (through interpreter):

When the neighbors were escaping, everyone knocked on the door of their apartment. But the door was jammed. And they could hear Ksenia screaming: "David, David." And then they heard nothing. And that was it.

A total of 13 people were killed in the attack.

As a mother, I blame myself. A mother's mission is to keep her safe. Why didn't I feel in my heart that there was danger?

You can't blame yourself.

Russia's ability to fire long-range missiles that Ukraine has brought the terror of war to cities far from fighting, regularly triggering air raid sirens that shake the calm of otherwise peaceful cities. One of the most commonly used is the airplane-launched Kh-101, designed originally by Russian aerospace firm MKB Raduga to carry tactical nukes, but now fitted with a conventional warhead and an upgraded guidance system.

When Russia fires the Kh-101s at densely populated cities like Kryvyi Rih, it may be committing a war crime. But does blame for such attacks end there? Ukrainian officials increasingly believe the companies whose components are being found in numerous Russian missiles need to be held to account too.

Man (through interpreter):

This is the factory identifier. The 315 is characteristic of Kh-101s.

We're at a secret location in Kyiv where technicians analyzed weapons recovered from the battlefield. The fragments from the Kh-101 that crashed in Khmelnytskyi have been brought here.

They have cut the flight control unit out of this section. And we're going to take a look at what they found inside. If you look at the outer casing of the flight control unit from this Kh-101 missile, then you see Russian writing, Russian parts all over it. It looks like a Russian computer.

But once you open it up and start looking at the motherboards that are hidden inside, put it underneath the electronic microscope, then you start to see what the brains of this machine are actually made of. And it's full of American components.

If we look here, we see imported components and not a single domestically made one. This is Altera. This is analog devices, Texas Instruments.

In this instrument alone, we found products made by five American companies, the most recently manufactured of which is this Xilinx Spartan-6 microchip made by Santa Clara, California-based AMD in 2020.

The company told NewsHour it had no record of the sale of the chip and suspected the markings on it may have been altered. Microchips manufactured after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started have also turned up in Kh-101s, like these Zilog processors made in March of 2022 and recovered from a missile shut down in the city of Dnipro in March of 2023.

Yantar, Ukraine (through interpreter):

Russia lost the microelectronics war, and this is how it's trying to get by. It may be getting these microchips through contraband. It might be tapping stockpiles it already has.

But think about it. All of the mathematics of this missile are in one computer. And without one little microchip, they couldn't assemble it.

It's clear that they have been able to assemble it, even though sanctions have been in place against the Russian arms industry for almost a decade.

I asked Olexandra Vasylenko, the director general for economic diplomacy and sanctions policy at Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, what the U.S. and its allies were doing wrong.

Olexandra Vasylenko, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through interpreter): They are really cautious with their dialogue, and they are really cautious was enforcement.

And business should be explained, what will be the punishment if they will circumvent or not comply with the sanctions? And, definitely, we see that there is a lack of this conversation.

James Byrne, a director at the Royal United Services Institute in London and one of the authors of a report on the Russian defense industry's reliance on imported semiconductors, echoed the Ukrainian view that there was a little obvious enforcement of Russia sanctions.

James Byrne, Royal United Services Institute:

I don't believe there has been any such action. We did have huge fines on some of the large financial institutions. And they were ultimately for essentially practices, failures in due diligence.

So it's certainly a possibility that something like this could happen, particularly if it's — if it continues or if it emerges that some companies really didn't follow any sort of due diligence.

According to Russian state procurement records obtained by "NewsHour," the Kh-101's onboard computer is made by Russian computer maker Korund-M at a cost of around $9,000 each.

Moscow's Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics purchased 20 of the units in 2019.

The Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics is a leading company in Russia in the field of air and ground-launched cruise missile manufacturing.

We sent pictures of the microchips we found to their American manufacturers to ask them who they were sold to in order to try to expose Korund-M's supply chain. But none of the companies were willing or able to provide the information.

At Texas Instruments, we're much more than one of the world's leading semiconductor providers.

This isn't entirely surprising. American technology giant Texas Instruments, whose components are turning up in multiple weapons platforms used by Russia, including the missile we saw, voted down a proposal to report internally on misuse of their company's product at its annual shareholders meeting in April.

Rich Templeton, Chairman, Texas Instruments:

The board of directors recommends to vote against this proposal.

That's Texas Instruments chairman Rich Templeton. His board of directors recommended to vote against the proposal because of a belief that the company already had a sufficiently robust compliance system in place and — quote — "Complete traceability and prevention of product misuse is unachievable."

And not only do they not know where their parts are going. It sounds like they don't want to know.

James Byrne:

Building compliance teams, tracing supply chains can increase the costs and the burden on some of these manufacturers. But I think that really is something that a lot of manufacturers and companies should look very closely at, because these components are still ending up in Russian weapons platforms.

Texas Instruments told NewsHour it complies with the law and doesn't support or condone the use of its products and — quote — "applications for which they weren't designed."

In the meantime, Iryna consoles herself with the thought that accountability will eventually come to the people who made the missile that killed her daughter.

The people who do this, they must understand that innocent people are killed by the missiles they make.

No, I'm not filled with hate. I just believe that people who bring evil will get what they deserve.

Not everyone in Ukraine is as patient as Iryna. Demands for companies to take more responsibility and the U.S. authorities to go after those that don't are only going to grow louder as the civilian death toll grows bigger.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.

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Ukraine’s army chief says Russia is augmenting its troops presence in the Kharkiv region

Ukrainian servicemen search a target with a US Stinger air defence missile launcher on the front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova, right, attend a Czech Defense Capabilities Event at Prague-Kbely Airport, in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, Pool)

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia conducted an array of aerial attacks on Ukraine with cruise missiles, drones and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said Thursday, while the chief of the army said Russia is increasing its troop concentration in the Kharkiv region where Moscow’s forces have made significant advances in a spring offensive.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence operation said that sea drones destroyed two Russian KS-701 patrol boats in the Black Sea off the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Russian officials didn’t immediately comment.

The air force said that the overnight attacks included eight S-300 ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles and 32 Shahed drones. All the drones and seven of the cruise missiles were shot down, the air force said, but didn’t provide further details.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, seven people were wounded and a municipal services building caught fire in the attacks, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Russian aerial strikes were also reported in Khmelnytskyi and Dnipropetrovsk, but there were no injuries.

AP AUDIO: Ukraine’s army chief says Russia is augmenting its troops presence in the Kharkiv region

In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. is working with other nations to fight Russian misinformation and disinformation.

Ukrainian army chief Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said on his Facebook page on Thursday that Russia is bringing army units into the Kharkiv region from other parts of Ukraine to supplement forces in the two main flashpoints of fighting, the towns of Vovchansk and Lyptsi. Syrskyi said that Ukraine has also moved reserve troops into the area.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses shot down eight U.S.-made ATACMS missiles over the Azov Sea, which borders both Russia and Russia-held Ukrainian territory.

One person was wounded by a drone explosion in Russia’s Belgorod region , which borders Kharkiv and comes under daily attack from the Ukrainian side.

A lengthy delay in U.S. military aid and Western Europe’s inadequate military production has slowed crucial deliveries to the battlefield for Ukraine, and Russia has exploited the delays to make advances in the Kharkiv region.

Russian missiles and bombs also have pummeled Ukrainian military positions and civilian areas, including the power grid.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assailed Russian attempts to sow discord in democracies with misinformation, after hinting that the Biden administration may soon allow Ukraine to use American-supplied munitions to strike inside Russia.

In Prague for a NATO foreign ministers meeting , Blinken cited Moscow’s use of misinformation and disinformation, calling it a “poison” and signing an agreement with the Czech government to combat it.

Blinken said Wednesday that U.S. policy on how Ukraine deploys American weapons is constantly evolving, suggesting that Washington may rescind an unwritten prohibition on Ukraine’s use of them for attacks on Russian territory.

Although U.S. officials insist there is no formal ban, they have long made clear that they believe the use of American weapons to attack targets inside Russia could provoke an escalatory response from Moscow, something that Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised.

Three U.S. officials familiar with the matter told AP on Thursday that President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the go-ahead to use American weaponry to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv.

The officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, underscored that the U.S. policy calling on Ukraine not to use American-provided long-range missiles and other munitions to strike inside Russia offensively has not changed.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine .

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Matthew Lee in Prague contributed to this report.

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Russian Missiles Hit Ukraine’s Energy System, Again

The large-scale air assault struck several sites in western Ukraine, including places near the borders with NATO member countries.

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By Constant Méheut

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Russian forces struck several of Ukraine’s energy facilities with drones and missiles early Saturday, in a major air assault that targeted cities across the country, including some near the borders with NATO members.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia had fired 53 missiles at its territory, that it had shot down two-thirds, and that some had been heading toward the western Zakarpattia and Lviv regions, which border Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, countries that are part of NATO. The Polish Army said its fighter jets and those of other allies had been scrambled to protect their borders in case a Russian weapon crossed them, as has happened in the past .

The strike on Saturday was Russia’s sixth attack on energy facilities in Ukraine since March, part of a wider campaign seemingly aimed at cutting off power to swaths of the country and making life miserable for civilians.

The barrage of missiles, which a top Ukrainian official said had injured about 20 people and which targeted a part of the country that has been less affected by the war, could add urgency to Kyiv’s recent calls for help from allies to protect its vulnerable regions. The attack followed a week in which several NATO allies signaled approval for Ukraine’s limited firing of Western weapons into Russia, culminating with the United States on Thursday .

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine argued in an interview with The New York Times last month that if Ukraine’s Western neighbors shot down Russian missiles coming close to their own borders — without having their planes cross into Ukrainian airspace — it would ease the burden on the Ukrainian Army, which is facing shortages of air defense ammunition and weapons .

“Technically, all of this is possible,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Shooting down Russian missiles already in Ukrainian territory, from their planes.”

Ukraine’s dearth of air defense systems has left some areas far more exposed than others. Russia has made the most of this situation in recent months, hitting cities and regions that do not enjoy the same protection as Kyiv, the capital, which is shielded by powerful American-made Patriot systems.

That was evident again in Saturday’s attack, which hit energy facilities in five regions in western, central and southeastern Ukraine. DTEK, the country’s largest private electricity company, reported serious damage to two of its power plants. “And again, an extremely difficult night for the Ukrainian energy industry,” the company said in a statement .

The authorities said that Ukraine had lost about eight gigawatts of capacity since March — about half of its generating capacity at the start of the year — prompting them to introduce rolling blackouts in an effort to conserve energy . Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national electricity operator, said that customers would face power cuts from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday.

Saturday’s attack appeared to have particularly affected Ukraine’s western regions, which have been spared heavier bombardment for much of the war.

Maksym Kozytskyi , the governor of the Lviv region, near Poland, said that six cruise missiles had hit three “critical infrastructure facilities” in the region, without specifying exactly what was hit. Just south of Lviv, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, local officials said that a fire had broken out at an energy facility.

The Ukrainian Air Force also said that missiles were heading toward the city of Mukachevo in the southwestern Zakarpattia region, less than about 25 miles from the borders with Hungary and Slovakia.

Officials in Ukraine have argued that if its allies were to use their own air defense systems to shoot down Russian missiles flying near their borders, it would allow Kyiv to redeploy its air defense weapons stationed in those areas to other areas facing near-daily air assaults.

“It is important to shoot down Russian missiles in the sovereign airspace of Ukraine and thereby allow Ukraine to concentrate its scarce antimissile systems in the east and south of the country,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app on Friday.

The Ukrainian authorities, for example, have discussed with Poland the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles with Polish air defenses.

They have also suggested that a French-Italian SAMP/T air defense system stationed in Romania, which borders southwestern Ukraine, could be used to shoot down Russian missiles. But two French officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss military matters, said that France was reluctant to do so, in part because the system was needed to protect NATO troops stationed in Romania.

Analysts say that downing Russian weapons from NATO territory is the kind of involvement that the United States and European governments have resisted, because it could provoke retaliation by Russia.

But Ukrainian officials could cite attacks like Saturday’s assault in pressing their case, just as they pointed to Russia’s recent offensive in the northeast when urging their allies to lift a ban on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons to attack inside Russia.

Mr. Zelensky, in his interview with The Times, argued that shooting down Russian missiles from NATO territory would not lead to escalation.

“Why can’t we shoot them down? Is it defense? Yes. Is it an attack on Russia? No. Are you shooting down Russian planes and killing Russian pilots? No,” the Ukrainian leader said. “So what’s the issue with involving NATO countries in the war? There is no such issue. It’s defense.”

Mr. Putin warned this past week, though, that any Western countries helping Ukraine strike into Russia should be aware of “what they’re playing with.”

Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people. More about Constant Méheut

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

President Biden asserted that defending democracy  in Ukraine is as vital  as the day that American troops joined the allies on D-Day to begin rescuing Europe from Hitler, hours after apologizing to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for the delay in military aid.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned that Western nations supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles and allowing them to be used to attack inside Russia could prompt Moscow to reciprocate against Western targets .

The decision by the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia  with American-made weapons fulfills a long-held wish by officials in Kyiv  that they claimed was essential to level the playing field.

Zelensky Interview: In an interview with The New York Times, Zelensky challenged the West  over its reluctance to take bolder action.

Tug of War:  Fueled in part by the Ukraine war, tensions have been mounting in former Soviet states like Georgia and Moldova , pitting those favoring closer relations with Russia against those orientated more toward Europe.

Fleeing a War Zone: A 98-year-old Ukrainian grandmother stumbled past corpses and bomb craters  to escape Russia’s attacks.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

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Putin says Russia could deploy missiles in striking distance of the West

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• Russia may send missiles closer to West
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As Moscow bureau chief, Guy runs coverage of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Before Moscow, Guy ran Brexit coverage as London bureau chief (2012-2022). On the night of Brexit, his team delivered one of Reuters historic wins - reporting news of Brexit first to the world and the financial markets. Guy graduated from the London School of Economics and started his career as an intern at Bloomberg. He has spent over 14 years covering the former Soviet Union. He speaks fluent Russian.

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Ukraine's exploding naval drones are hunting down Russian vessels like tugboats after the big Black Sea Fleet warships fell back

• Ukrainian special forces on Thursday used naval drones to hunt down a Russian tugboat near Crimea.
• Kyiv in recent weeks has been forced to go after smaller Russian vessels in the Black Sea.
• Moscow has pulled back its larger warships to reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

Ukraine is using its arsenal of exploding naval drones to hunt down smaller Russian vessels instead of the larger Black Sea Fleet warships, which Moscow pulled back to reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

The Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence stated that one of its special forces units staged a "successful attack" that destroyed a Russian military tugboat on Thursday. The operation against this Project 498-series vessel took place near the northwest corner of the occupied Crimean peninsula.

"Devastating fire damage was inflicted after the successful breakthrough of the line of defensive barriers of the occupiers in the Black Sea area," the HUR said in a statement shared to the Telegram messaging app, adding that the vessel "will no longer sail."

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The operation appears to have been carried out by a Ukrainian surface drone, according to footage published by the HUR, although the exact model is unclear. Kyiv has relied on a fleet of homemade Magura V5 and Sea Baby drones packed with explosives to carry out devastating missions against ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet throughout the war.

Sea drones on the hunt — Saturn tugboat at the bottom of the Black Sea. On June 6, 2024, the special unit 9 of @DI_Ukraine successfully attacked the russian tugboat Project 498 (Saturn or Protey type) near the shores of the temporarily occupied Crimea. pic.twitter.com/s1pJ4dGjD6 — Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 6, 2024

Footage of Thursday's operation, captured by a camera placed on one of the drones, appears to show a rather complex attack.

Multiple explosions can be seen around the coast, and the drone appears to slip through a hole in the floating boom defenses. The barrier may have been targeted in advance to allow the drone to pass through, though it's unclear. Russia has relied on these types of defenses — along with moored barges — to try to protect its ports from Ukraine's naval drones.

After navigating the harbor, the naval drone is seen eventually homing in on the tugboat. It then appears to slam into the Russian vessel, causing the video connection to terminate.

Business Insider could not immediately verify the footage.

Ukraine has, in recent weeks, been targeting smaller Russian military vessels in the northwestern Black Sea after Moscow moved its larger, more vulnerable warships away from the area and across the region following a string of devastating attacks.

Last month, for instance, Kyiv used its naval drones to conduct multiple operations against Russian patrol boats near Crimea.

The Black Sea fight has been a notable area of success for Ukraine. Lacking a proper navy of its own, Kyiv has relied on naval drones and long-range anti-ship missiles to wage an asymmetrical style of warfare against the Black Sea Fleet.

Russia has proven incapable of consistently protecting its warships against these threats. It has bolstered the defenses on its vessels and even sent combat aircraft to patrol the region. Earlier this year, Moscow also reshuffled its naval leadership , though the personnel changes have done little to save its fleet.

Watch: Ukraine's sea drones vs. Russia's Black Sea Fleet

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