A salvo of at least 12 British Storm Shadow missiles hit the Russian village of Marino, in the Kursk region, in the early afternoon of Wednesday, November 20. This was the first use of this weapon by the Ukrainian army on Russian territory. The strike came two days after Ukraine's first-ever use of US-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles, in a salvo of eight missiles that destroyed the arsenal of logistics center number 1046 near Karachev, in the Bryansk region.
Several videos of the Storm Shadows strike were posted by witnesses on social media on Wednesday afternoon. They showed the characteristic whistling sound of cruise missiles detonating in turn over an easily geolocatable area. Photos of missile fragments, taken by Marino residents, appeared to confirm that they were indeed Storm Shadow missiles.
As yet, little is known about the Ukrainian army's target on Russian territory, other than that it is located on the grounds of a sumptuous early 19th century palace known as "Marino, the Baryatinsky family estate." Listed as a national historic and cultural heritage site, the building is currently used as a holiday residence by the Russian presidential administration.
Several hypotheses have circulated in the Ukrainian media as to the nature of the target. According to defense news website Defense Express, the eastern part of the site could be a military installation or an integrated command center. Given its geographical location, Marino could be used by the command of the Russian troop group in the Kursk region – or even by North Korean generals, given the presence of their soldiers deployed in the same region where Kyiv forces launched an offensive on August 6. The use of 12 of these missiles, of which Kyiv has only a limited number, suggests that the target is of very high value to Kyiv.
Generally well-informed, the pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger and former Fighterbomber pilot wrote on his Telegram channel that "12 missiles correspond to six aircraft [capable of carrying 2 Storm Shadows each]. For example, Su-24s [bombers known to have fired Storm Shadows in the past] that fired two missiles simultaneously and from the same position. (...) The flight time of the ATACMS fired [on November 19] to their target in the Bryansk region is two minutes and 16 seconds. The flight time of the Storm Shadows to their target is between two and a half and three minutes."
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