CAR researchers find out when missile that hit Okhmatdyt hospital on July 8 was produced

This is stated in the material of Conflict Armament Research (CAR).

On July 30, investigators from CAR, an independent research organization that tracks arms transfers, documented the remains of the missile that hit Okhmatdyt hospital.

CAR identified the missile as a Russian Kh-101. CAR's assessment confirms the statements made by other research organizations based on their analysis of the video of the attack. 

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. Or perhaps even eight days before. 

These conclusions were made based on research, in particular, on parts of the rocket engine and the tail section of the Kh-101 missile.

The researchers documented parts of a 13-digit production number (31526379XXXXX) on the tail of the missile. This format is consistent with the markings that researchers have documented on 11 other Russian Kh-101 missiles in Ukraine since 2022.

CAR has obscured the last five digits that would uniquely identify the missile, in line with its tracking methodology.

The first three digits (315) of the production number are common to all Russian Kh-101 missiles CAR has documented in Ukraine, as are the next three digits (263). CAR is aware of two variants of the latter marking, but has documented "263" on all recently manufactured missiles.

The numbers "7" and "9" indicate that the missile was manufactured in the second quarter of 2024 (between April 1 and June 30, 2024), according to CAR's previously published methodology. Given that Russia attacked Okhmatdet on July 8, this confirms that the missile was manufactured just weeks or possibly days before the attack.

The short time between missile production and deployment is consistent with the trend of Russia deploying high-value cruise missiles within two months of production. CAR has been recording this trend since December 2022.

What is known about the attack on Okhmatdyt

On July 8, Russia attacked the children's hospital with a Kh-101 strategic cruise missile. At the site of the tragedy, fragments of the missile's rear body with a serial number and part of its rudder were found.

The next day, emergency rescue operations on the territory of Okhmatdyt in Kyiv were completed, and at that time it was known about two dead and 32 injured people. However, on July 10, it became known that a boy who had been in intensive care at the time of the attack died in the hospital. On the morning of July 12, a 7-year-old boy from Prykarpattia, who was also in Okhmatdyt during the Russian attack, died in Kyiv.