Kyiv confirms use of Russia’s INF-banned 9M729 missile in strikes on Ukraine – Reuters

Reuters reported this with reference to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, according to Ukrinform.

This marks the first official confirmation that Russia has used the land-based 9M729 missile in combat.

According to another senior Ukrainian official, since August Russia has launched the 9M729 missile 23 times against Ukraine. Ukraine also recorded two launches of this missile in 2022.

The 9M729 missile was the reason the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019. Washington said the weapon violated the terms of the treaty, capable of exceeding the 500-kilometer range limit. Moscow has denied this.

According to the Missile Threat website produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, the missile, which is capable of carrying either a nuclear or conventional warhead, has a range of up to 2,500 kilometers.

A military source told Reuters that a 9M729 missile launched by Russia on October 5 flew more than 1,200 kilometers.

"Russia's use of the INF-banned 9M729 against Ukraine in the past months demonstrates (President Vladimir) Putin's disrespect to the United States and President Trump's diplomatic efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine," Sybiha told Reuters.

He emphasized that Kyiv supported President Trump’s peace proposals, but said maximum pressure must be maintained on Russia to push it to peace. Boosting Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities, he added, would help persuade Moscow to end the war.

According to the unnamed senior official, the missile strikes began on August 21, less than a week after the Trump–Putin summit in Alaska.

As reported earlier, in 1987 the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. In 2019, the U.S. administration declared that Russia had violated the treaty by deploying the 9M729 missile system and announced its withdrawal from the agreement.

In August 2019, Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the treaty had ceased to be in force.