# Rusty Dagger Missiles Could Cause Problems for Russia Despite Limited Threat, Expert Says

Ukraine’s newly acquired Rusty Dagger missiles pose no major threat to Russia but could create additional difficulties if produced in large numbers, military expert Vadim Mingalev has warned.

According to Mingalev, the missiles' main advantage lies in their potential for mass production. While he considers the weapons themselves relatively unthreatening, their deployment in substantial quantities could complicate the situation for Russian forces.

The analyst also linked the emergence of Rusty Dagger missiles in Ukraine’s arsenal to the movement of Soviet-trained missile specialists into NATO countries. He described this transfer of expertise as a brain drain affecting the Soviet missile engineering tradition.

Mingalev argued that combining Soviet-era engineering knowledge with modern NATO approaches creates a potentially troublesome combination for Russia. However, he maintained that the missiles would not provide Ukraine with an effective defense against large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes.

In his assessment, Rusty Dagger cannot stop such attacks, although the weapons could still create additional operational challenges for Moscow.

Earlier, Russian war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny suggested that Rusty Dagger missiles could become a frequently used weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal. His comments followed a November 10 announcement by the Russian Defense Ministry reporting the interception of missiles of this type.

Poddubny believes Ukrainian forces could rely on Rusty Dagger to strike Russian rear-area targets amid a shortage of precision-guided weapons.