KYIV/MOSCOW — A massive Russian missile barrage targeting Kyiv in the early hours of May 24 has triggered intense global scrutiny over the strategic desperation of the Kremlin. The Ukrainian military confirmed Russia launched 90 missiles of various types, including the "Oreshnik" ("Hazelnut") hypersonic ballistic missile, a nuclear-capable weapon designed to travel at 10 times the speed of sound with a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometers.
While presented by Moscow as a chilling display of deterrence following a Ukrainian drone strike on a facility in the Luhansk region on May 22, military analysts suggest the use of such an elite, ancestral strategic asset for a tactical retaliatory strike signals a severe depletion of Russia's conventional high-precision cruise missile stockpiles. Deploying a weapon valued between $20 million and $30 million to strike localized targets—compared to cheaper Iskander missiles ($3 million) or Ukrainian drones costing as little as $20,000—reveals a stark, asymmetric economic strain that makes the campaign increasingly unsustainable.
The strike highlights a deepening dilemma for President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian intelligence indicates Russia has consumed over 10,000 missiles since the outbreak of the war, outstripping its manufacturing capacity despite factories operating at maximum output. Furthermore, because Ukraine has relocated much of its defense production to neighboring NATO countries like Poland, these exorbitant strikes fail to disrupt Kyiv's core military capabilities. With the domestic economy crippled by international sanctions, ballooning fiscal deficits, and a heavily scaled-back Victory Day parade revealing an outwardly strong but inwardly depleted state, Moscow faces a compounding predicament: it cannot afford to continue trading precious strategic assets for tactical attrition, yet it cannot gracefully exit the conflict without swallowing a historic geopolitical defeat.
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