Ukraine wants to use Storm Shadow missiles to strike Moscow and Sochi

The Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to strike important targets in Russia with 600-km Storm Shadow cruise missiles, sources at US intelligence services say.

Photo: tecnodefesa.com.br by Tecnologia e Defesa, CC BY-SA 4.0

The selected targets allegedly include:

• the fleet in Novorossiysk;
• the presidential residence in Sochi;
• the air defense system in Sevastopol;
• defense and gunpowder factories;
• headquarters located from the south of Russia to Moscow;
• Moscow and St. Petersburg;
• transport interchanges used for the traffic of military equipment and fuel for the Russian army.
• It was earlier reported that Paris discussed a possibility to allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike Vladimir Putin's residence in Sochi, as well as military facilities deep in Russia.

Earlier, The Telegraph and The Guardian also reported that the UK authorized Storm Shadow strikes on Russian territory without official public approval.

According to the US intelligence community, Kyiv plans to enlarge the fleet of its Air Force, disperse military aircraft, arm them with Storm Shadow missiles and launch massive missile attacks deep into Russia.

Such attacks are supposed to demoralize residents of Russia's largest cities as millions of Russians will thus experience the operation of air defense systems literally above there heads. War will come directly to their homes, people will see their cities on fire, whereas defense factories and major highways will lie in ruins.

Ukraine would also want to strike the Crimean Bridge. They consider such an attack desirable, yet ineffective due to the characteristics of the Storm Shadow missiles and the density of air defense systems at the facility.

Ukraine's ultimate goal is to sow panic and chaos in the Russian society, to instill fear, helplessness and horror in Russians to eventually trigger massive protests across the country.

Ukraine thus hopes to force Moscow to peace and hold peace talks with Russia from a position of strength.

Earlier, Research and Analytics said that MI6 representatives admitted in conversations with Ukrainian military officials that possible casualties among tourists during attacks on the Crimean Bridge would be "an insignificant and useful factor."

Details

The Storm Shadow is a Franco-British low-observable, long-range air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. "Storm Shadow" is the weapon's British name; in France it is called SCALP-EG (which stands for "Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général"; English: "Long Range Autonomous Cruise Missile System – General Purpose"). The missile is based on the French-developed Apache anti-runway cruise missile, but differs in that it carries a unitary warhead instead of cluster munitions.