Russia shells Ukraine with missiles it received from Kyiv in 1999 for gas debts - media. PHOTO
Russia fires at Ukraine with X-55 cruise missiles, which were transferred to Moscow as part of an agreement between Cabinet of Ministers and Russian government in 1999 in exchange for repayment of debts for Russian gas.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.
The journalists searched the archives for an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, headed by Valeriy Pustovoitenko, and the Russian government, led by Vladimir Putin, signed in Yalta in 1999. According to this agreement, Kyiv handed over eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS heavy bombers, as well as 575 X-55 cruise missiles to Moscow. In return, Russia compensated Ukraine for its debt for Russian gas - in the amount of 275 million hryvnias. This is the determined value of the transferred equipment.
Along with the agreement, journalists received a list with all the numbers of the transferred missiles and compared them with the numbers of the X-55s that Russia used to fire at Ukraine after the start of the full-scale invasion.
Three of these missiles, which were shot down by Ukrainian air defence in January, May and April 2023 in Kyiv and the region, were on the list of missiles transferred to Moscow in 1999.
Another X-55, which hit an apartment block in the Ukrainian capital in late 2022, killing a woman, was also handed over by Kyiv as part of the deal. Another missile, which Kyiv also handed over to Moscow, hit a house in the Kyiv region. A child was injured in the shelling.
Several other Scheme missiles were identified using photographs with numbers on the wreckage obtained from law enforcement sources.
In total, the journalists found the numbers of more than ten missiles that had previously been transferred to Russia, and 23 years later, the Russian army launched them into Ukraine, the investigation said.
Some of these downed missiles are now stored at the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.
The X-55 missile was originally designed in the Soviet Union to carry a nuclear warhead. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that "Russia is depleting the Ukrainian air defence system with X-55 missiles that do not carry an explosive warhead". These missiles, according to the ministry, are dangerous because of their kinetic energy and exploding fuel residues.
