Ukraine war: Kyiv displays dud nuclear-capable missile fired by Russia

People in a fight starting to trow their empty pistols at the opponent is a symptom of desperation. This is not much different.

Without nuclear heads the capability of this expensive missiles to do real harm compared with the rest is low. It suggests that they are in the phase of trowing pans and pots ad anything at sight to the opponent. Without chips and means to build more weapons, Russia could be approaching fast a point of technological breakage and exhausted reserves. They had launched yet a big percentage of their missiles it seems.

The mail bombs in Spain also feel like a red flag that they are losing their grip really fast and are trying anything except nuclear that would be instant game over for Putin.

But Ukranians will still suffer to pass this winter. At least they have plenty of wood in the demolished buildings to burn and a lot of them are safe in another countries. This is probably the biggest humanitary emergencies of complex type happened in Europe in decades. And the second half of it is still coming.

> Russia is now using nuclear-capable missiles with non-explosive warheads to exhaust Ukraine's air defences, the Ukrainian military has said.

> Ukrainian military experts say Russia may have significantly depleted its vast missile arsenal after carrying out wave after wave of massive strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent weeks.

> Moscow is now resorting to using blunt projectiles that still cause devastation, they say. A UK intelligence report in November came to similar conclusions.

> The UK said the missiles were designed "exclusively as a nuclear delivery system".

If I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly, the 'exclusively nuclear' versions of these cruise missiles were made in the 20th century and use Ukrainian engines.

> It is powered by a single 400 kgf Ukrainian-made, Motor Sich JSC R95-300 turbofan engine, with pop-out wings for cruising efficiency.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-55

Very probably a decoy target to draw off air-defence missiles. And if it hits something on the way down, that's a bonus.

These are 30-year-old-plus missiles that aren't good for anything else.

Western MSM have been claiming the 'Russia is out of missiles' since March. When the Russians keep sending salvos of 100-odd missiles at a time, it doesn't look at all like they're 'out of missiles'.