The warhead had been removed and ballast added to disguise the fact that it was not carrying a payload, said Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy intelligence chief — an assertion now backed by the Pentagon and British military intelligence.They served a strategic goal: Sending up the missiles would force Ukraine to mobilize its air-defense system against them.- Weaponizing Winter: Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure have left millions without power, heat or water as the snow begins to fall.“First, the Kh-55 missile is launched; we react to it,” General Skibitsky said, speaking in a lengthy interview at military intelligence headquarters in Kyiv last week, before the latest missile strikes across the country.As part of the 1990s agreement, known as the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear arsenal — the world’s third-largest at the time, inherited from the collapsed Soviet Union — and transfer all nuclear warheads to Russia for decommissioning in return for security assurances."