Russian missiles continue to misfire: Another Kh‑55 found by Ukrainian mushroom picker
Ukrainian positions shelled by the Russians do not always hit the intended target. Sometimes, the missiles fall in random places due to a malfunction or interception. A similar discovery was made by a resident of Ukraine, who, in an unknown location, found a Kh-55 missile during a mushroom-picking expedition.
The Russian Federation regularly "loses" its ammunition fired during attacks aimed at Ukraine. Therefore, residents of Ukraine often find Russian weapons in their neighbourhoods. As recently as this past May, such an incident occurred in one of the forests in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district. A man walking there accidentally came across a Kh-69 missile with an unexploded warhead.
It is worth mentioning that earlier, another passerby in Ukraine found a Kh-47 Kinzhal missile, which also crashed but did not explode. What is essential, however, is that Russian missiles also fall due to malfunctions on the territory of the Russian Federation. These are by no means isolated cases but instead frequently recurring incidents. One of the latest was when a 3-tonne FAB-3000 bomb "was lost" in the Belgorod region or a Mohajer-6 drone accidentally crashed in the Kursk region.
Found a Kh-55 missile in the forest
This time, the accidental find involves the famous Kh-55 missile in Russia. According to posts shared on the X portal, a Ukrainian went to the forest to pick mushrooms, and during the walk, he came across a crashed missile for unknown reasons. The @Bricktop_NAFO profile notes that the rocket visible in the footage fell due to a malfunction or was shot down.
However, It is worth noting that the Kh-55 missile was in relatively good condition. This, in turn, has sparked interest among numerous commentators on the discovery on social media. In subsequent threads on the profiles sharing the mentioned footage, many voices suggest that the Kh-55 could essentially have been a decoy and placed in the forest for a specific purpose. There is no doubt, however, that the film features a Kh-55, although it cannot be confirmed how it got there.
Let us explain that the Kh-55 is a Russian air-to-surface cruise missile whose history dates back to the 1970s. Its inclusion in the Russian arsenal occurred in 1984, six years after the first tests were conducted. The Kh-55 missiles are carried by Tu-95MS and Tu-160 bombers. The former can carry six missiles of this type, while the Tu-160 is more spacious than the "ninety-five" – it can carry up to 12 Kh-55 missiles.
The Kh-55 missile measures just over 6 metres and has a diameter of about half a metre. This enormous structure weighs about 2 tonnes and is powered by a turbojet engine supported by inertial navigation, satellite navigation, and terrain mapping. Thanks to this, the missile can hit a given target with an accuracy of a few feet, while its range is estimated at 3,000 kilometres.
