How Many Missiles Does Russia Have? Ukraine Says Up to 700

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence directorate has estimated that Russia held up to 700 ballistic missiles and several thousand cruise missiles of various types as of October 2026, with its defence industry capable of producing more than 200 missiles a month, including up to 110 ballistic missiles. The assessment was published on November 4, the same day President Volodymyr Zelensky met German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in Berlin and told him that Ukraine faced “a chronic shortage of interceptors for the Patriot system.” The directorate did not disclose how it had obtained its figures, which cannot be independently verified. The two statements highlight the arithmetic now facing Kiev’s air defences, with Russia able to add ballistic missiles to its arsenal considerably faster than Western partners have been supplying the Patriot interceptors on which Ukraine’s ballistic missile defence chiefly depends.

The directorate put stocks of the 9M723 missile for the Iskander-M system at around 115, with roughly 65 more produced each month. It assessed that Russia held more than 120 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles and over 450 3M14 Kalibr cruise missiles, the latter produced at about 29 a month. Production of the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile was reported to have been temporarily suspended over accuracy problems, with the capacity redirected to other ballistic types. The estimate followed what Ukrainian officials described as the largest Russian attack on the country’s energy facilities this year, on the night of November 3. Zelensky stated that 17 ballistic missiles were launched that night, while the Ukrainian Air Force reported only three shot down, and damage to a substation serving the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant forced Ukraine’s nuclear plants to reduce output.

Zelensky stated after the Berlin meeting that a contract for German-made PAC-2 missiles was already in place for the next two years and that both sides were working to accelerate deliveries. Teams are also to examine further supplies of IRIS-T systems and munitions for Ukraine’s F-16 fighters. Raytheon had announced on April 14 a $3.7 billion direct commercial sale of PAC-2 GEM-T interceptors for Ukraine, supported by a new production facility at Schrobenhausen in Bavaria operated by COMLOG, its joint venture with MBDA Deutschland. Chancellor Friedrich Merz had discussed PAC-2, PAC-3 and IRIS-T deliveries with Zelensky a day earlier, with €11.6 billion for Ukraine included in Germany’s draft 2027 budget. The visit follows Zelensky’s October request to European leaders for 300 Patriot interceptors, and the U.S. approval on October 30 of a sale of 500 PAC-3 MSE missiles after Kiev had waited almost a month for a Pentagon signature.

The MIM-104 Patriot fires two broad families of interceptor, the PAC-2 GEM-T, which destroys its target with a blast-fragmentation warhead and is used against aircraft, cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles, and the PAC-3 MSE, a hit-to-kill missile developed primarily to defeat ballistic targets. The Iskander-M flies a manoeuvring quasi-ballistic trajectory over ranges of up to 500 kilometres, a profile intended to complicate interception that has made it one of the most demanding targets for Ukraine’s air defences. The directorate stated that an upgraded variant of the Iskander with an estimated range of between 550 and 700 kilometres is currently in development.