Russia says destroyed Ukraine's Sapsan missile production facilities funded by Germany just hours before Putin-Trump meeting

Economic Times

10 hours ago

Amid rising tensions, Russia announces the destruction of Ukrainian missile manufacturing plants known for producing Sapsan missiles, funded by German investments. This bold move comes just prior to a pivotal summit in Alaska between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, where the Ukraine conflict is expected to dominate discussions.
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List of Ukrainian missile production units hit
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What is the Sapsan missile?
The Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska
Russia claimed that it destroyed several facilities in July 2025 deep inside Ukraine where medium-range Sapsan missiles , financed by Germany, were being produced. But the details of the covert operations were revealed only on August 13, 2025, just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska's Anchorage.The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on August 13, 2025 asserted that Germany's link to the production of Sapsan missiles was confirmed and five Ukrainian defense facilities making them and other weapons destroyed in a joint operation with the Defense Ministry.The missile is also known as Hrіm-2, Grom or OTRK Sapsan and has an official range of about 500 kilometers (over 310 miles). But Russia believes it can be used against targets over 700 km (435 miles) away, potentially bringing its capital Moscow within range.Russian news outlet TASS reported that the FSB and Russian Defense Ministry carried out a sabotage mission to destroy production facilities where Sapsan missiles were being manufactured. The FSB claimed that it was a much bigger operation than Ukraine Security Service's much-talked about Operation Spider's Web on June 1, 2025, in which dozens of armed drones were smuggled inside Russia and used to attack its strategic heavy bomber aircraft across several airbases, some thousands of miles away from the frontlines."The damage to the Ukrainian military-industrial complex is colossal, far outweighing the harm done to Russia in Operation Spiderweb carried out by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Main Intelligence Directorate," TASS reported from the FSB documents.The strikes were carried out at five locations - two in Pavlograd, two in Shostka, and one in Zhytomyr region.In Pavlograd, a city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (eastern Ukraine), a chemical plant producing solid fuel to power Sapsan missiles, and also making and stockpiling shells, small aerial bombs, and thermobaric charges was targeted. A mechanical plant nearby which produced and assembled missiles, propulsion units, control systems, and Sapsan warheads was also destroyed.About 580 kms to the north, two facilities in Shostka in Sumy Oblast, northeastern Ukraine, were hit. One was the Shostka State Plant "Zvezda" where gunpowder and warheads were made and the second was the Shostka Research Institute of Chemical Products. Here rocket fuel for flamethrower systems was produced and new types of explosive materials were being developed.Stating that the covert operations were carried out against ballistic missile production facilities to neutralize Ukraine's offensive capabilities, the FSB report claimed that Kiev was also on the verge of developing and deploying longer range projectiles against Russia.TASS also quoted a FSB officer, who was involved in the planning the covert strike, as stating that Germany had financed the production facilities where Sapsan missiles were being built."It has been established that with Germany's financial support and the assistance of foreign specialists the development and production of the Sapsan medium-range operational-tactical missile systems capable of striking deep into the territory of the Russian Federation has been carried out at defense enterprises in the Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions of Ukraine," the officer stated according to a TASS report.A June 23, 2025, EuroMaidanPress.com report states that Germany had advanced a financial aid of 5 billion euro defense package to Ukraine for the development of longer range hypersonic missiles to counter Russia's massive arsenal.Russia has maintained that Ukraine used the Soviet stockpile and technical knowhow to develop its own missile systems.Ukraine started developing the Sapsan missile in 2014 and two years later Saudi Arabia joined the project by investing $40 million into it. Sapsan was successfully test-fired for the first time in August 2024.A few months later on November 9, 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the country had produced 'its first 100 missiles'. International defence experts concluded that he was referring to the Sapsan based on Zelenskyy's comment that these could be used for 'striking deeper and deeper into Russia'. Some experts were of the opinion that he was referring to the R-360 Neptune, a subsonic cruise missile with a maximum range of 1,000 kms (620 miles).The officially admitted maximum range of Sapsan is 300 km (190 mi) with a 480 kilogram conventional warhead. The missile can fly hypersonic with a top speed of Mach 5.2 (1.1 mi/s; 1.8 km/s). It is powered by a single-stage solid propellant engine.The two leaders are meeting on August 15 at a military base in the US state of Alaska. They will discuss ways and means to bring the war in Ukraine, which has been going on since late February 2022, to an end.Trump has warned Russia of "severe consequences" if Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine. However, he has not spelt out his plans if Putin refuses a ceasefire.The Russian President has been adamant on annexing the entire eastern part of Ukraine. These include Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. Crimea has been under Russian rule since 2014 when Putin sent his forces into Ukraine for the first time.Russia currently occupies almost 25 percent of Ukraine. An Al Jazeera report states that almost 114,500 square km (44,600 square miles) of Ukraine's land is under Russian control.