New Kh-101 missile used to strike Kyiv children’s hospital
Ukraine Field Dispatch, August 2024
Background
Conflict Armament Research (CAR) investigators have found that the missile that struck Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital on 8 July 2024 was manufactured in the Russian Federation only weeks, and potentially just days, before the attack.
On 30 July 2024, CAR investigators documented the remnants of the missile that struck the Okhmatdyt National Specialized Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. The strike caused severe damage to the facility and resulted in several casualties, according to Ukrainian officials.
CAR has identified the missile as a Russian Kh-101 air-to-surface guided weapon. CAR’s assessment confirms statements that other research organisations had made based on analysis of videos of the attack. A latest-generation model of Russian cruise missile, the Kh-101 entered service in 2013.
CAR’s analysis, based on physical examinations of marks on the remnants, shows that the missile that struck Okhmatdyt hospital was produced at most three months before the attack—and potentially as recently as eight days prior. This short time frame between the production and use of Kh-101 missiles is part of a trend that CAR first observed in December 2022.
The missile that struck Okhmatdyt hospital was produced at most three months before the attack—and potentially as recently as eight days prior.
Field documentation
CAR investigators documented the airframe, parts of the rocket motor (including the engine), and the tail section of the Kh-101 missile on 30 July 2024.
On the missile’s tail section, CAR investigators documented parts of a 13-digit production number (31526379XXXXX). This format is consistent with marks that CAR has documented on 11 other Russian Kh-101 missiles in Ukraine since 2022.
CAR has documented 13-digit production codes on 11 other Russian Kh-101 missiles in Ukraine since 2022.
The date code
Recent missile production
Parts of the production number of a Kh-101 missile, recovered after the 8 July 2024 attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv and documented by CAR in Ukraine on 30 July 2024.
CAR has obscured the final five digits, which would uniquely identify the missile, in accordance with its tracing methodology .
The first three digits (315) of the production number are common to all Russian Kh-101 missiles that CAR has documented in Ukraine, as are the next three digits (263). CAR knows of two variants of the latter mark but has documented ‘263’ on all recently manufactured missiles.
The digits ‘7’ and ‘9’ indicate that the missile was produced in the second quarter of 2024 (between 1 April and 30 June 2024), according to a previously published CAR methodology . Given that the strike on the children’s hospital took place on 8 July, this finding confirms that the missile involved was manufactured just weeks or possibly days in advance of the attack.
Kh-101 guided weapons display a 13-digit production code from which CAR investigators inferred a date of manufacture.
Digits 1-3
Digits 4-6
Digits 7-8
Digits 9-13
The short time frame between the missile’s production and its deployment is in line with the above-mentioned trend, which sees high-asset cruise missiles used within two months of production, as observed by CAR since December 2022.
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Further Resources
- Dating newly produced Russian missiles used in Kyiv attacks : CAR investigators document Kh-101 surface-to-air guided missiles used in Ukraine which were produced at most two months prior to their use by the Russian Federation.
- Ukraine iTrace Resource Centre : Explore the weapons and ammunition data documented by CAR in Ukraine and read interactive case studies from our field reporting. Access the Resource Centre .
About Conflict Armament Research
Established in 2011, Conflict Armament Research generates unique evidence on weapon supplies into armed conflicts in order to inform and support effective weapon management and control.
CAR field investigation teams document illicit weapons, ammunition, and related materiel in conflict-affected locations and trace their supply sources. The teams inspect weapons in a variety of situations—whether recovered by state security forces, surrendered at the cessation of hostilities, cached, or held by insurgent forces. They document all items photographically, date and geo-reference the documentation sites, and incorporate contextual interview data gathered from the forces in control of the items at the time of documentation.
CAR occasionally uses information and photographs from social media as background information but does not base its investigations on them, since the provenance of such data is often difficult to verify. Moreover, open-source information does not always provide the detailed physical elements—notably external and internal markings required to trace weapons and ammunition.
For more information on CAR's methodology, go to www.conflictarm.com
