The Ukrainian military intelligence agency, HUR, reports that Russia has the capacity to produce over 200 ballistic and cruise missiles per month. This monthly production includes up to 110 ballistic missiles. I find the scale of Russia’s stockpiles alarming because HUR claims that Russia, the aggressor state, "maintains significant stockpiles of long-range missile weapons and continues to ramp up production despite international sanctions." As of October, HUR estimates Russia holds up to 700 ballistic missiles and several thousand cruise missiles of various types, though the agency did not reveal how it obtained the data. Within those ballistic totals, about 115 are 9M723 Iskander-M ballistic missiles. Russia also holds over 120 3M22 Zircon missiles, which Russia uses in large-scale missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, even though the weapon was designed to target and destroy warships.
| Missile Category | Monthly Production | Total Stockpile |
|---|---|---|
| Ballistic | Up to 110 | Up to 700 |
| Cruise | Over 100 | Several thousand |
Energy facility strikes and interceptor shortages
Russia intensifies missile and drone attacks against Ukraine, often targeting critical infrastructure in a renewed energy blitz. On November 3, Russia launched its biggest mass attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities this year, hitting substations, transmission systems, power plants, and electrical grids across nine different regions. President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had launched 17 ballistic missiles against Ukraine overnight, and the Air Force reported that only three of those specific missiles were shot down during the attack. I judge the situation to be increasingly desperate because Ukraine faces a deepening Patriot interceptor missile shortage to counter ballistic threats. These regular attacks overwhelm the country’s air defense. I find the Russian capacity to maintain these strikes despite sanctions to be an extremely dangerous development for Ukrainian defense. The missile strikes target substations, transmission systems, and power plants. I find the current inability to intercept most of the 17 ballistic missiles launched overnight to be a devastating failure for air defense. Russia targets critical infrastructure in deadly strikes to disrupt the country’s power supply. I find the lack of interceptors a major problem.
