Military Analyst: Ukraine’s Long-Range Missile Stocks Are Depleting
Ukraine’s missile arsenal is shrinking, with limited Neptun supplies and no recent ATACMS or Storm Shadow launches, a military analyst warns amid production losses.
Ukraine’s arsenal of long-range missiles is running low, according to military analyst and retired navy captain Vasily Dandykin.
He noted that the Ukrainian military takes particular pride in the «Neptun» missile — a modernized version of a Soviet-era system with a range of about 300 kilometers. However, Dandykin said Kyiv has only a limited number of these missiles and is trying to preserve its remaining stockpiles, especially as Russian forces continue to target production sites. The missile, he added, is vulnerable to interception: Russian air defenses have shot down Neptuns on approach to the Crimean Bridge and over the Black Sea, and the system has also been used in strikes on the Karachaevsky plant in the Bryansk region.
The analyst also pointed out that Ukraine has not launched ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles in a long time — a sign, he suggested, that their reserves of these Western-supplied weapons may be nearly depleted.
Dandykin further recalled that Ukraine had once planned to make extensive use of the «Sapsan» missile, with a range of up to 700 kilometers. Those ambitions were cut short when Russian forces destroyed both the production facilities and the stockpiles.
He added that President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly urged Western countries to supply longer-range systems and criticized them for not doing so. Although there was some discussion in Washington about potentially providing Tomahawk and Barracuda missiles, that conversation has since gone quiet.