Ukrainian defense minister claims Russia has used up two thirds of its missile arsenal

Ukrainian defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov posted on Twitter that, over the course of the war in Ukraine, the Russian army has used up two thirds of its precision missiles. He claims the Russian Ministry of Defense now has 609 missiles of various types at its disposal. The source of Reznikov’s information is not known. The Russian military has not shared similar information.

According to Reznikov, before the invasion the Russian military had 1844 missiles: 900 missiles for Iskander complexes (he says 124 remain), 500 sea-based Kalibr missiles (272 remain), and 444 air-launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles (213 remain).

The Ukrainian defense minister also said on live television that Russia still has around 300 Shahed drones, which it purchased from Iran. He suggested that in the near future Moscow would try to acquire several thousand more from Tehran. 

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, quoted similar figures about Russia’s missile arsenal. According to Danilov, Russia has only 25 to 28 percent of the precision missiles it had at the beginning of the war. “Our intelligence is flawless,” he said. “We know, give or take a margin of error, the number of missiles that remain on Russian territory. We’re talking about precision missiles, which cause the most trouble for us.”

In times of war, it is impossible to immediately verify information disseminated by either side of the conflict, including by the defense ministries of opposing countries. Please proceed with caution.

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On October 10-11 the Russian Ministry of Defense carried out massive missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. The ministry announced that it was attacking military, energy, and telecommunications targets, but it also shelled civilian targets. The Kremlin made it clear that the strikes were retribution for the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, for which Moscow blames Ukrainian intelligence services.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that since October 10, Russia has launched 84 missiles on Ukrainian cities. Air defense systems shot down 43. In addition, 24 drones attacked Ukraine, of which 13 were shot down. Ukrainian Forbes estimates that the latest attack cost Russia 400 - 700 million dollars. We previously reported that in the first two months of the war, Russia launched more than 1,300 missiles on Ukraine, at a cost of 7.5 billion dollars.

There is no independent tally of the missile arsenal of the Russian Federation. Various international intelligence services, including Britain’s, have claimed that Russia is exhausting its military reserves. Military expert Pavel Luzin told the publication Vazhniye Istorii that Russia is running out of Kh-555 missiles, but that it can still produce Kh-101, Iskander, and Kalibr missiles.

According to official Russian Ministry of Defense announcements, in 2019, production of Kalibr missiles alone reached around 50 units per quarter. At the beginning of summer Russian authorities announced that military enterprises would work three daily shifts.