Last month, Ukraine also announced that Russia had used up 70% of its missile stockpile.

Britain, the United States and Ukraine have repeatedly asserted that Russia’s missile arsenal is exhausted, but on the contrary, it is clear that Moscow still has so many missiles. The last attack from November 15 to 17 with about 100 missiles proved it.

The New York Times of the United States on November 18 offered an explanation of how Russia was able to launch a large number of missiles into Ukraine in the past week. The Pentagon and British intelligence spent months gathering information and confirmed that Moscow’s stockpile was low. Last month, Ukraine also announced that Russia had used up 70% of its missile stockpile.

On November 15, the Russian military carried out a missile strike of an “unprecedented scale” against infrastructure facilities in the capital Kiev, the city of Lviv and the regions of Kharkov, Rivne, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Odessa and Zhytomyr. The attack caused a widespread blackout in Ukraine. According to the company in charge of Ukraine’s electricity system Ukrenergo, the country’s electricity system has been severely damaged, especially in the north and central regions. In the capital Kiev, more than half of the population is living without power.

A smoke rises over the city after Russian missile strikes, amid their attack on Ukraine in Lviv November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Pavlo Palamarchuk

On November 17, 2022, a new wave of attacks was launched by the Russian army against the cities of Odessa and Dnipro. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley also said that Russia has carried out its largest air raid on Ukraine, possibly using up to 100 missiles. The November 15 and 17 attacks, which the Times described as “the biggest aerial attack ever,” raised questions about the state of Russia’s arsenal and alternative sources of weapons.

One explanation came from the Pentagon when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on November 16 that Russia was reaching out to Iran and North Korea to replenish its ammunition stockpile. Of course, Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang all deny this. Another explanation given by the US media is that Russia used S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to attack ground targets. Moscow inherited and subsequently continued to produce large quantities of anti-aircraft missiles from the Soviet era.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced domestic efforts to increase production of related equipment and systems to supply special military operations in Ukraine. According to Janes, Russia is actually building more missiles. Maybe they’ve been stockpiling microchips for years. Accordingly, Russia has planned and may have begun mass production of Iskander, Kalibr and cruise missiles before February 2022. Mark Cancian of the Think-Tank Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington notes that very few people in the West know how many missiles Russia has in its stockpile, and Moscow may be stockpiling a large number of weapons, in case there is an open conflict with NATO.

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