During a combined long-range strike by the Russian Federation on Ukraine in the night of January 15, 2025, the enemy utilized X-55SM cruise missiles, which, although they are standard carriers of nuclear warheads, were employed by the Russians with mass-dimensional mock-ups of the warheads.
The use of X-55SM missiles is specifically noted in the report from the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These missiles, along with X-555, were launched from a Tu-95MS from a launch area in the Volgograd region.
The purpose of using these missiles, which carry only a metal "dummy," is to confuse Ukrainian air defense forces, effectively serving as decoys. It is also worth mentioning that the use of X-55SM in reports from the Air Force has been noted in the statistics for repelling attacks on December 25 and 13, 2024.
The missile itself differs from the regular X-55 due to conformal fuel tanks, which increase its range to 3,500 km. This version was introduced in 1987 and continued to be produced in Russia after the collapse of the USSR. Overall, since November 2022, Russia has been using X-55 missiles and their modifications for strikes against Ukraine X-55 and their upgrades.
In this attack, the Russians also used 1 ballistic missile ("Iskander" or KN-23), 7 X-22 or X-32 missiles from Tu-22M3, 4 Kalibr cruise missiles launched from the sea, 27 air-launched X-101 cruise missiles, as well as the X-55SM missiles, 4 guided X-59 or X-69 missiles, and 74 Shahed-type drones and imitation drones. Thus, in total, the enemy employed 117 air attack means, of which 43 were missiles.
The Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot down 26 cruise missiles and all guided X-59/X-69 missiles, which accounts for 85% of all enemy means that could be intercepted by standard air defense systems. Additionally, all 100% of enemy UAVs were neutralized, with 47 shot down and another 27 failing to reach their targets.
Regarding the high-speed X-22 or X-32 missiles and the ballistic missile, intercepting them requires appropriate air defense systems of the Patriot and SAMP-T class, the number of which is limited, and their deployment areas are evidently known to the enemy. However, it has been noted that not all enemy missiles that were not shot down reached their targets.
The Russians aimed this strike at Ukrainian gas infrastructure in the Kharkiv region, as well as in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. As of the time of publication, there is no information regarding critical damage to this infrastructure.