Journalists receive evidence that Russia is bombarding Ukraine with missiles that Kyiv handed over to Moscow in 1990s

Journalists have obtained evidence that Russia has been attacking Ukraine using Kh-55 cruise missiles which were officially handed over by Kyiv to Moscow as part of an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers and the Russian government in 1999 in exchange for paying off debts for Russian gas.

Source: investigation by Skhemy (Schemes), a project by Radio Liberty 

Details: The journalists received the text of the agreement and a list of the serial numbers of the missiles transferred and compared these with the numbers of Kh-55s that the Russian army began to use against Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.

Skhemy revealed that at least a dozen missiles from the list were used by the Russian Federation to attack Ukrainian cities – some of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defence forces, and some hit residential buildings.

The journalists found an agreement in the archives between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine headed by Valerii Pustovoitenko and the Russian government under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, signed in Yalta in 1999.

According to this document, Kyiv gave Moscow eight Tu-160 heavy bombers and three Tu-95MS, as well as 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles. In return, Russia offset the value of this equipment against Ukraine’s debt for Russian gas in the amount of UAH 275 million [approx. US$7,449 million – ed.]. This is the determined value of the transferred equipment.

Along with the agreement, the journalists received a list with all the serial numbers of the transferred missiles and compared them with those of the Kh-55s Russia fired at Ukraine after the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Three such missiles, which the Ukrainian air defence shot down in January, May and April 2023 in the city of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, are on the list of missiles transferred to Moscow in 1999.

Another Kh-55, which hit an apartment building in the capital of Ukraine at the end of 2022, killing a woman, was also transferred to Moscow as part of the agreement. Another missile, which Ukraine also gave to the Russian Federation, hit a house in Kyiv Oblast. During the attack, a child was injured. 

Several more missiles were identified by Skhemy using photographs with serial numbers on the wreckage obtained from law enforcement sources.

In total, journalists found the serial numbers of more than ten missiles that were previously transferred to Russia, only to be launched across Ukraine 23 years later. 

Some of these downed missiles are now stored at the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.

Reference: Originally, the Kh-55 missile was created exclusively as a carrier of nuclear warheads. The General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that "Russia is exhausting the Ukrainian air defence system with Kh-55 missiles that do not carry an explosive warhead." These missiles, the department says, are dangerous because of their kinetic energy and exploding fuel residues.

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