The ministry did not provide the location of the missile storage site it claims to have targeted.
Russian forces have struck a storage site in Ukraine allegedly housing domestically produced Sapsan ballistic missiles, Moscow’s defense ministry claimed on Aug. 17.
“Operational-tactical aviation, attack drones, missile troops, and artillery … have inflicted damage on a storage area [for] Sapsan operational-tactical missiles and their components,” it said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.
The ministry did not provide the location of the missile storage site it claims to have targeted.
Also known as the Hrim-2, the Sapsan is a Ukrainian-produced short-range ballistic missile system.
In mid-June, The Kyiv Independent reported that the Sapsan missile system was entering the mass-production phase as part of Ukraine’s effort to “domestically produce the weapons it needs to fight Russia’s full-scale invasion.”
The report added that the Sapsan missile system had already been successfully tested in combat and was “in the process of serial production.”
It was unclear, however, when the system would be deployed for use on the battlefield, the news outlet said.
4 Sites Hit Last Week, Moscow Claims
Last week, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that four Sapsan missile production sites had been destroyed in a joint operation carried out in conjunction with Russia’s defense ministry.
Two of the targeted sites were located in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region and two in the Sumy region, the FSB said, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
The FSB went on to claim that the strikes had delivered a “colossal” blow to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
On Aug. 14, TASS quoted an FSB official as saying that Ukraine’s Sapsan missile system was capable of “striking deep” inside Russian territory.
On its Telegram channel, TASS published a map purporting to show areas that Sapsan missiles would be able to reach if launched successfully.
According to the map, most of western and central Russia—including Moscow—would have come within range, along with most of neighboring Belarus, a key Russian ally.
The FSB official cited by TASS also claimed that Ukraine’s Sapsan missile system was being developed with German financial support and with “the assistance of foreign specialists.”
Germany has yet to issue a statement in response to the FSB’s claims.
By Adam Morrow
