“Flies at an enormous speed”: an expert explained the danger of Russian Kh-22 missiles

Political technologist Mykhailo Sheitelman explained why, unexpectedly, on the night of January 24 the Russians used Kh-22 missiles to strike Kyiv, what this means, and what threats they pose, Politeka reports.

He spoke about this on his blog.

Before that, the expert recalls, the Russians had been striking energy infrastructure in Kyiv with Iskander and Kalibr missiles, but on January 24 twelve Kh-22 missiles were launched — missiles we had not seen in the sky for a long time. The main danger, he explains, is that the accuracy of the Kh-22 is about 600 meters, meaning hitting a transformer substation is still a matter of chance.

“Why are such missiles needed? Their advantage is that they fly at an enormous speed — 5–6 times faster than the Kh-101. Because of this, they are difficult to intercept. They were designed for nuclear bombing. They carry 950 kg of explosives, but the purpose is different. The idea is that it has a nuclear warhead, it flies into an American aircraft carrier group and sinks the entire group,” Mykhailo Sheitelman explains.

The expert also reminds that the Russians have already carried out more than one mass killing of civilians with this missile: a Kh-22 struck a shopping mall in Kremenchuk and an apartment building in Dnipro. Propagandist Venediktov, he says, tried to excuse the Russians, claiming the missile simply deviated from its target and therefore it was not a war crime. However, under international law, it is forbidden to fire inaccurate missiles at cities — only high-precision weapons may be used. The Russians stopped using the Kh-22 not because life was good, the expert notes, but because Ukraine once struck Engels airbase and burned fuel there. And now, most likely, there were not enough Iskanders for the attack, while winter — the ideal time for strikes on energy infrastructure — is coming to an end.

“So, they sent 12 of them toward Kyiv, and 9 were shot down. And now, attention. Since 2022, the Russians have used a total of 412 Kh-22 missiles, of which only 5 were shot down. That is, previously they were practically impossible to intercept, but the current Patriot systems, as it turned out, can shoot this missile down. The Russians did not expect such a setback. They thought they would simply blanket our city, hitting wherever it landed. What, were they targeting all the chocolate factories? Putin and a chocolate factory — because, among other things, fragments of one of the missiles hit the ROSHEN chocolate factory,” Mykhailo Sheitelman concludes.

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