The pro-Kremlin Izvestia published a photograph of the Storm Shadow missile used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike Lugansk on May 12. This is the first evidence that Ukraine has long-range missiles, and the first confirmation of their use. Following Izvestia, several more pro-Kremlin news agencies published photographs of the wreckage of the rocket from different angles.
Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French air-launched long-range stealth cruise missile. The flight range of the export version of the missiles is more than 250 km. Despite the fact that photo evidence of its use appeared only today, the very fact of the strike on Lugansk is also indirect confirmation. It is more than 90 km from the front line and cannot be reached by GMLRS missiles launched by HIMARS. On May 11, the UK announced the delivery of Storm Shadow.
Military analyst and open data researcher DefMon spoke back in November that Luhansk is an important logistics hub for the Russian army. Then he came to the conclusion that only long-range missiles would help disrupt the supply chain from Lugansk. The first of these were the Storm Shadow delivered by the UK.