Ukraine’s investigators published what they found in Oreshnik wreckage

What the missile was carrying matters as much as where it landed. The Oreshnik’s warheads were inert simulators, metal and concrete blocks with no explosive content, a configuration Ukraine’s military has identified in all three combat deployments of the system. The Oreshnik is designed as a nuclear delivery vehicle, carrying multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, meaning warheads that separate from the missile body in the upper atmosphere and descend toward individual aim points. Using dummy warheads in combat deployments allows Russia to demonstrate the system’s reach, precision, and terminal characteristics without committing to a level of destruction that would cross political thresholds.

Impact site analysis found craters measuring approximately three meters in diameter and two meters deep, dimensions consistent with heavy metal blocks rather than explosive warheads. Analysts comparing the Bila Tserkva craters to those from Dnipro and Lviv found no meaningful difference, undermining Kremlin claims of unique penetration capability.

The debris recovered at the Bila Tserkva impact site provided Ukrainian specialists with the clearest look yet at the Oreshnik’s internal architecture. Among the components found was the warhead deployment unit responsible for separating the reentry vehicles from the missile’s post-boost stage, confirming that the system carries six main warhead elements, each of which further separates into six submunitions during terminal descent, producing the characteristic 36-point impact pattern visible in footage from all three strikes. A wiring unit connecting the individual warhead elements was also recovered. Electronic components found within the guidance section included devices bearing manufacturing dates of 2018, consistent with earlier analysis of Oreshnik debris from the Lviv strike.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine’s Commissioner for Sanctions Policy, confirmed that the electronic components recovered from the Bila Tserkva wreckage originated primarily from Russian and Belarusian manufacturers, with five components produced in Belarus and 57 in Russia. That breakdown differs from Russian missiles recovered in earlier phases of the war, which contained a higher proportion of Western-made components. Vlasiuk noted the shift but also confirmed that Ukraine has shared the findings with international partners for sanctions follow-up, consistent with the Ukrainian government’s practice of publishing component-level analysis to support enforcement action against the supply chains feeding Russian weapons production.

The OSINT analyst Kim Høvik was among the first to identify that two Oreshnik missiles may have been fired on the night of May 23-24, not one. Høvik analyzed video from two separate locations and noted that one camera positioned in Donetsk city was recording toward the north at approximately 00:59, showing MIRV reentry characteristics consistent with an Oreshnik strike near what he assessed as the area outside Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, roughly 17 minutes before the confirmed Bila Tserkva impact at 01:16. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Ihnat stated he had information about only one confirmed Oreshnik use, which is consistent with the second impact occurring in Russian-occupied territory where Ukrainian ground assessment would be impossible. Zelensky subsequently referenced the second strike in a written communication to President Trump and the U.S. Congress, providing what appears to be the first official Ukrainian acknowledgment that two missiles were launched. The second Oreshnik’s fate on that night, whether it was a failed strike, a deliberate test, or a successful strike on an occupied-territory target, remains unconfirmed from available public sources.

The scale of the overall strike package that accompanied the Oreshnik launch was substantial. The Ukrainian Air Force tracked 690 aerial weapons between the evening of May 23 and the morning of May 24, with Kyiv designated as the primary target. The package included two Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles launched from MiG-31K aircraft over Lipetsk, three 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missiles fired from occupied Crimea and the Kursk region, 30 Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles, 54 cruise missiles including Kh-101 and Kalibr variants, and approximately 600 Shahed attack drones supplemented by radar-decoy drones. Ukrainian air defense knocked down 44 cruise missiles and 11 ballistic trajectories, but 16 missiles and 51 drones broke through, hitting 54 locations across the city. Two people were killed in Kyiv, two more in the Kherson region, and close to 100 were injured. A five-story residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district suffered near-total structural collapse.

The selection of Bila Tserkva as the Oreshnik’s target this time, after Dnipro and Lviv, traces a deliberate geographic shift toward the Kyiv region. Each deployment has demonstrated reach to a different part of Ukraine, and each has used inert warheads in a way that generates usable precision data without producing the mass casualties that would force a qualitatively different response from Ukraine’s Western partners. The first Oreshnik strike in Dnipro produced immediate political pressure and calls for new response frameworks. The second in Lviv expanded the demonstrated range. The third, 80 kilometers from Kyiv, moves the system’s demonstrated aim point into what Russia treats as the most politically sensitive geography on the Ukrainian map.

The debris field in a Bila Tserkva garage cooperative is small, the craters are measured in meters, and the casualty count from the Oreshnik warheads specifically is zero. That is exactly how the weapon was designed to be used, as a political instrument that speaks in the language of nuclear delivery systems while leaving room to claim restraint. Ukraine’s investigators found the components, published the specifications, and sent the findings to their partners.