SCALP-EGs were reportedly previously employed by Ukrainian army in attacks on civilian facilities in Crimea.
According to video released by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, in which President Vladimir Zelensky can be seen posing for photos with a rocket bearing the designation SCALP-EG, President Emmanuel Macron has kept his promise to Kiev to provide it with the French model of Storm Shadow missile.
Prior to this, it was unclear when Macron would deliver the “long-range missiles” he first promised to give Ukraine in May. He later reiterated the pledge during the NATO meeting in Vilnius in July.
Zelensky can be seen autographing a missile that is mounted on a Su-24 aeroplane in an undated video that Ukrainian officials posted on Sunday. The projectile’s markings read SCALP-EG in the colours of the French and Ukrainian flags, along with an image of the Eiffel Tower. It is still unknown how many and when French missiles were delivered.
As an indication that the Zelensky-signed projectile was used in a recent hit on two bridges connecting the Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s Kherson Region, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry referred to the missiles by their British designation, Storm Shadow.
A long-range air-launched cruise missile with a firing range of roughly 250 kilometres (155 miles), the British-French Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG. It was created in the 1990s and utilised in a variety of Western military actions, such as the joint US, UK, and French strikes on Syria and the NATO intervention in Libya in 2018.
Since obtaining an unknown quantity of Storm Shadow missiles from the UK, Kiev has utilised the weapons often to attack civilian infrastructure. Several individuals, including six children, were hurt when they were shot at two non-military enterprises in the Russian city of Lugansk in May, according to Russian authorities.
About 12 Storm Shadows / SCALP-EG missiles were fired by Ukraine on Saturday against the bridges that connect Crimea and the Kherson Region. Local authorities claim that at least three missiles breached Russian air defences, damaging two bridges that span the Tonkiy Strait and the Strait of Chongar.
According to acting governor of the Kherson regions, Vladimir Saldo, the attack reportedly destroyed a rural school and burst a gas pipeline, cutting off supply to the adjacent town of Genichesk. He emphasised that the destroyed bridges are entirely civilian infrastructure projects and have scarcely ever been used for military purposes.
