Engineer behind Russian Kh-69 cruise missile reportedly killed in Moscow region as part of Ukrainian intelligence operation
Mikhail Shatsky, deputy general designer and head of software at the Mars Design Bureau — which develops missiles used by the Russian military — was shot dead in the Moscow region on Friday, according to Ukrainian outlets, including Suspilne, RBC Ukraine, and UNIAN.
Ukrainska Pravda wrote that Shatsky was killed as part of a “special operation by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.”
Shatsky helped modernize Kh-59 cruise missiles to the Kh-69 model and was a proponent of integrating artificial intelligence into Russian drones and other aerospace technologies, note Ukrainian media and journalist Alexander Nevzorov.
Sources cited by Ukrainian media stated that “any individual involved in developing Russia’s military-industrial complex and thereby supporting its aggression against Ukraine is a legitimate target for Ukraine’s Defense Forces.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee and the regional prosecutor’s office have not commented on reports of Shatsky’s death.