Ukraine’s foreign minister alleged Friday that Russia has used the ground-launched 9M729 cruise missile—known to NATO as the SSC-8—in recent strikes, reviving a long-running arms-control dispute. Andrii Sybiha said the deployments show “complete disregard for international arms control norms,” as reported by Reuters. He said the missile has been launched multiple times in recent months.
The 9M729 was central to U.S. accusations that Moscow violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Washington withdrew from the pact in 2019 after years of compliance disputes, according to the Arms Control Association. Russia denied breaching the treaty.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Kyiv is not employing American long-range weapons against Russia and noted that Ukraine’s domestically produced systems can reach up to 3,000 kilometers, remarks made at a Brussels press conference and covered by Euromaidan Press. He urged European leaders to back additional funding for Ukraine’s defense.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society that newly announced U.S. sanctions would not significantly affect the economy, according to an official Kremlin transcript (Kremlin). He criticized the measures as politically motivated pressure.
Separately, Russia’s foreign minister rejected President Donald Trump’s call for an “immediate ceasefire,” saying it contradicted understandings from the leaders’ August meeting in Alaska, an assertion relayed in an interview summarized by The Moscow Times. Moscow continues to insist on guarantees including Ukraine’s nonaligned, nonnuclear status.
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