Ukraine officially said on Tuesday that it used Storm Shadow missiles to strike a production facility in Russia, adding the Western-made advanced munition to its arsenal against the Kremlin’s key war industries.
The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces wrote on Telegram that it had conducted a “massive combined missile and air strike” on the Bryansk Chemical Plant in southern Russia, a facility that manufactures gunpowder, explosives, and rocket fuel components.
It added that the salvo included air-launched Storm Shadows, subsonic cruise missiles jointly developed by France and the UK that can carry a 1,000-pound explosive payload.
“The Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to strike strategic facilities of the military-industrial complex on the territory of the Russian Federation, thereby weakening the offensive potential of the aggressor state,” the post said.
Ukrainian officials said the results of the strikes were “being assessed.”
Russia’s defense ministry said it had destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones over Bryansk on Tuesday evening, but did not say if Storm Shadow missiles were detected in the attack.
Bryansk’s governor, Alexander Bogomaz, also said that Kyiv had attacked the region with fixed-wing drones. While he later issued two missile alerts, Bogomaz also did not mention the Western-made cruise missiles.
Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels circulated clips of a large fire breaking out in what appears to be an industrial facility, saying that a power substation in Bryansk had been hit. Business Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
Tuesday’s attack comes as Kyiv ramps up its campaign of deep strikes on Russian industry complexes to undermine the Kremlin’s ability to pay for and manufacture arms.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on October 8 that “long-range sanctions against Russia,” referring to attacks on Russian energy facilities, are achieving “truly significant results” and have forced Moscow to tap into its diesel reserves.
That effort has relied mainly on Ukraine’s homegrown fixed-wing drones and missiles, which were used to strike dozens of oil facilities and weapons factories in the last year.
The latest use of Storm Shadow missiles indicates that Kyiv is now officially adding these Western weapons as an offensive option against Russian industry.
Russia previously said that it had shot down three Storm Shadow missiles over the Rostov region in December, and that a fourth missile struck a building in a chemical plant after being deflected.
But Ukraine has, until now, been evasive on whether it’s used Storm Shadow missiles to target Russian infrastructure.
The Storm Shadow can strike targets 155 miles away and fly at low altitudes to avoid detection. The UK and France delivered an unspecified number of these missiles to Ukraine in 2023, but limited Kyiv to using them against Russian targets in occupied territory.
In November, Ukraine was permitted for the first time to launch Storm Shadows against military targets in Russia.
Using these Western weapons against Russian industry points to Ukraine receiving more explicit backing from the UK amid Washington’s waning and inconsistent support.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump was reported to have urged Kyiv to submit to Russia’s demand of surrendering eastern Ukrainian territory, after months of publicly voicing displeasure with Moscow.
Representatives for Russia and Ukraine’s defense ministries did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
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