The missile that destroyed the nuclear balance: Russia uses 9M729 against Ukraine
31 October 2025 14:16
According to Reuters, the Russian Federation has used the 9M729 (SSC-8 according to NATO classification) ground-launched cruise missile in Ukraine, the secret development of which forced US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) during his first term in 2019. Since August, Russia has fired this missile at Ukraine 23 times, the agency wrote on Friday, October 31, citing a senior Ukrainian official, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Siberia: evidence of Putin’s disrespect for Trump’s efforts
According to the official, Ukraine also recorded two launches of 9M729 by Russia in 2022. In a conversation with the agency, the use of the 9M729 missile by Russia was also confirmed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who called these actions evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disrespectful attitude to Trump’s attempts to end the war in Ukraine.
“Russia’s use of 9M729 missiles against Ukraine in recent months, which are prohibited by the INF Treaty, demonstrates Putin’s disrespect for the United States and President Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end the war,” Reuters quoted the Ukrainian minister as saying.
Reuters notes that Sibiga’s comment is the first confirmation that Russia has used the 9M729 ground-launched missile in combat in Ukraine or elsewhere.
One of the missiles flew over 1,200 kilometers
An unnamed military source said that one of these missiles, fired by Russia on October 5, flew more than 1,200 kilometers to the impact site in Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to Reuters’ written request for comment.
Meanwhile, Western military analysts believe that the use of the 9M729 missile expands Russia’s arsenal of long-range weapons for striking Ukraine and fits into a pattern of threatening signals to Europe from Moscow amid Trump’s efforts to reach a peaceful settlement.
“I think Putin is trying to increase the pressure in the Ukraine negotiations,” William Alberk, a senior fellow at the Pacific Forum think tank, told Reuters in an interview. In his opinion, the 9M729 missile was designed to hit targets in Europe.
Washington withdrew from the INF Treaty because of the 9M729 missile
During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, the 9M729 missile caused tensions between Russia and the United States to rise. Its development was carried out in secret and there is little information about the missile’s characteristics, but according to Washington, the 9M729 can fly about 2,500 km, being a potential carrier of a nuclear warhead. This violates the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed between the USSR and the United States in 1987.
Russia denied this information and insisted that the treaty had not been violated and that the maximum range of the 9M729 was 500 kilometers. After receiving data on the production of the 9M729, the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019.
