Ukraine is planning to strike Moscow with newly-developed long-range missiles, one of the country’s officials has claimed.
The news comes as Russian forces struck a private enterprise with a long-range cruise missile in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, wounding three people, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
Ukraine plans to hit Moscow
An official in the war-torn country said they planned to eventually hit the Russian capital – over 520 miles (840km) away from Ukraine’s border – as well as other targets inside Russia.
Kyiv has had to turn to the development of its own long-range missiles after allied nations supplying munitions stipulated that they could not be used outside of Ukraine’s territory.
Ukraine now plans to use its own adapted Neptune anti-ship missiles to strike territory inside Russia.
It comes after Ukraine last week detonated an adapted subsonic Neptune missile in Crimea, destroying Russian air defence missiles in a giant explosion that also took out Russian troops.
The new missile is now designed to hit ground targets, with modifications including changes to its GPS system and a vastly extended range.
Report on last week’s attack
Last week’s attack using the modified Neptune missile struck a Russian S-400 air defense system in the west of the occupied peninsular, a Ukrainian official told War Zone.
One of the anti-ship missiles famously sank the Moskva flagship of Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea Fleet last year.
The official said the attack on the S-400 system in the west of Crimea last week was ‘100 per cent carried out by a modified Neptune’.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to allow the open discussion of operational issues, War Zone reported.
Initial speculation was that Kyiv had used a British or French supplied Storm Shadow missile with pinpoint accuracy in this deadly strike on Olenivka at Cape Tarkhankut in northwest Crimea.
But the sophisticated cruise missile appears now to be the product of its own development.
Russian reports also corroborated the Ukrainian official’s claims, with Telegram channels from the ground appearing to confirm use of the adapted missile inside annexed Crimea.
Ukraine has been forced to adapt these weapons to strike targets in Russia after allied countries placed restrictions on donated weapons being used outside of its territory.
