Russian Kh-55 Missile Fired at Kyiv had Dummy Nuclear Warhead

Ukraine’s military analyzed the debris of Russian Kh-55 missile fired at Kyiv on November 17 and found that it carried a dummy nuclear warhead.

Strategic Communications Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was quoted as saying by Ukraine-based Defense Express outlet that Russia unscrewed the nuclear warhead of one of its Kh-55 missiles and replaced it with a dummy. “Although we should not rule it out that as events develop, at least a few such missiles will be seen," StratCom added.

This could be because Russia is running out of conventional missiles of Kh-555 modification, writes Technoilogy.org. If a nuclear charge was taken out, does this mean Russian soldiers forgot to put a conventional warhead in its place? Or, if a nuclear warhead was taken out, where is it now?” the publication wrote.

There is also a chance that the missile with a dummy warhead existed in its current form, and was simply used as a somewhat less-expensive decoy with the aim to misguide the Ukrainian Air Defense systems, as per Ukrinform.