In an under-reported story, a treasure trove of information about Russia’s nuclear weapon infrastructure has been hacked and released.
A massive security breach has exposed terrifying details about Russia’s rapidly expanding nuclear weapons programme, including what experts say is a significant advance in hypersonic missile technology. Documents obtained and analysed by German magazine Der Spiegel and Danish investigative outlet Danwatch reveal that Western companies—including the German gypsum manufacturer Knauf—are supplying materials used to expand Russia’s secretive nuclear weapons bases.
The leaked files include detailed blueprints and procurement lists from Russian military construction projects, providing rare insight into the infrastructure behind Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. Among the materials specified are cement, plaster, adhesives, insulation, and cladding, many supplied by Western firms. Knauf, based in Iphofen, Bavaria, features prominently. Although the company has publicly distanced itself from its Russian operations, the documents show it still controls its Russian subsidiaries.
At one point, one of these subsidiaries was even classified as “systemically important” within Vladimir Putin’s economy, underlining the company’s continued strategic role in supplying construction materials vital to Russia’s military build-up.
The documents detail construction at the nuclear base near Yasnyj, featuring blueprints for watchtowers and military facilities. European military experts confirmed some sites—including Yasnyj—have been equipped with Russia’s Avangard system, a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade missile defences by manoeuvring at extreme speeds.
Like all Russia’s hypersonic missiles, I have grave doubts that Avangard (first announced in 2019) comes anywhere near its Wunderwaffen specs.
Satellite imagery analysed by Der Spiegel shows these sites have been modernised with reinforced structures, upgraded defences, and sensor technology, built from higher-grade materials than in previous decades.
New missile silos, designed to house around 900 strategic warheads, are better fortified and concealed.
The leaked procurement data also reveals how Russia is getting around Western sanctions. Direct deliveries from Germany to Russian defence entities are banned, but Russian buyers use intermediaries.
One example is a small firm in Yekaterinburg, which won a contract to buy Knauf plaster for the 368th regiment at Yasnyj.
A Knauf spokesperson told Der Spiegel: “The management of the Knauf Group and the Knauf family condemn Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
But evidently not enough to stop doing business with them.
The revelations come amid mounting concern over Russia’s expanding nuclear arsenal and the international implications of Moscow’s continued military modernisation despite sanctions.
As before, I continue to have doubts as to how much nuclear weapons modernization Russia can pay for. The United States is going to spend some $634 billion this decade maintaining its nuclear deterrent. The U.S. spends more money maintaining nuclear weapons in a given year than Russia spends annually on its entire military.
Danwatch has more information on the breach, but the top of the page is very slide-show heavy before you get to the meat at the bottom.
Danwatch, in collaboration with German Der Spiegel, can for the first time reveal previously unknown details about the enormous upgrade of the military infrastructure at Russia’s most protected facilities.
Together we have analyzed more than two million documents relating to Russian military procurement that Danwatch systematically retrieved from a public database over a period of many months. The Russian authorities have gradually restricted access to the database, but we managed to circumvent these restrictions by using a veriety of digital techniques, including a network of servers located in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Given computer security standards in most organizations, the idea that sensitive information was just sitting on a publicly accessible server for years at a time is entirely too plausible.
The documents reveal how numerous new facilities have been built across all of Russia: Entire bases have been almost leveled and rebuilt from the ground up; hundreds of new barracks, watchtowers, control centers and storage buildings have been erected; and several kilometers of underground tunnels have been excavated.
I can’t imagine that Putin is pleased that every nation in the world now has precise location targeting information for those sites…
Tags: Avangard, Foreign Policy, Germany, hacking, Military, nuclear weapons, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War
I am impressed that someone hacked the Russian military: I thought all the hacks ran in one direction (against us).
“Like all Russia’s hypersonic missiles, I have grave doubts that Avangard (first announced in 2019) comes anywhere near its Wunderwaffen specs.”
The latest version of the 2K270 Iskander M missile launched against Ukrainian drone production and storage sites after 20 May has demonstrated terminal approach, radical hypersonic maneuvering as well as decoy deployment. It is now taking 3 to 6 MIM-104 PAC 3 Patriot interceptors to achieve a 50% probability of Iskander M interception.
This was reported in the Ukrainian publication Defense Express on 25 May in a post titled ‘Russia Upgrades Iskander-M Missiles, Making Them Harder to Intercept — Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman’. It was also reported in the CIA publication, The Kyiv Independent, in a similarly titled post on 24 May.
The Ukrainians have now exhausted their supply of Patriot interceptors. This is how the Russians destroyed the heavily defended Antonov drone factory in western Kiev and the Panamanian flagged container ship delivering 100 containers of Turkish drones in Odessa’s harbor.
It is reasonable to assume that the latest Iskander M improvements were derived from the Objekt 4202 development program. It also appears that NATO is scraping the bottom of the barrel for Patriot interceptors. All the Patriot interceptor missiles in South Korea and Israel have been retrieved for service in Ukraine.
I find the Timing nd Sources of this “ info” to be intriguing…
given their current geo-polity nd all.
Redacted
“Russia Upgrades Iskander-M Missiles, Making Them Harder to Intercept — Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman”
No Church service will be safe from Putin’s cruise missles now.
“No Church service will be safe from Putin’s cruise missles now.”
Missile and artillery attacks on Orthodox churches is a compulsion of your beloved Ukrainians and their British puppet masters. It doesn’t really advance their military objectives and it is a real waste of NATO military aid.
The Russians are too focused on their military objectives to waste missiles, drones, or artillery shells on non military objectives. Why the Russians are crushing the Ukrainians.
Or this whole “leak” could be a plant by whatever the KGB calls itself these days.
[…] MY: Giant Russian Nuke Info Hack. “Given computer security standards in most organizations, the idea that sensitive information […]
“Missile and artillery attacks on Orthodox churches is a compulsion of your beloved Ukrainians and their British puppet masters.”
There are psychotherapist who can help with your affliction.
“Abusers often employ a manipulative strategy known as DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim, and Offender) to maintain their power and control. Through DARVO, they deny any wrongdoing, attack the accuser, and reverse roles with the victim, casting themselves as the harmed party. This powerful form of manipulation has lasting effects on the true victim and society as a whole.”
“I have grave doubts that Avangard (first announced in 2019) comes anywhere near its Wunderwaffen specs”
If they are lethal, how near to those specs must they be?
Maybe the better Questions are How many can they build? How fast? And at what cost?
Arthur C. Clark. “Superiority “.
I note the conspicuous lack of anything nuclear related. Nice new base you have there, too bad none of the warheads work.
“Russians are too focused on their military objectives” Yeah, let’s go with that.
“Or this whole “leak” could be a plant by whatever the KGB calls itself these days.”
Doubt the Russians were too concerned about this leak. Everything shown in the media could be ascertained by satellite observation.
All the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces’ heavy hitter ICBMs are road mobiles constantly touring the country on MAZ and KAMAZ 8×8 TELS. They don’t silo their ICBMs.
This site is probably an ICBM and TEL test & repair facility. It does show that the Russians have enough resources to invest lavishly in their SRFs at the same time they are spending heavily to fight in Ukraine.
Not sure how one concludes from analyzing satellite imagery that something is more concealed. I suppose “more” can be the operative word here. I would just suggest that if it can be identified with a camera from hundreds of miles away; then it has poor concealment. Especially if it is concreted in place and can’t move, because then it is a known fixed target.
“There are psychotherapist who can help with your affliction.”
Probably cannot help the parishioners of St. Nikolo-Zadonsky Cathedral in the village of Epiphany, in the Tula Oblast. Deliberately targeted by Ukrainian drones on 24 May. Out in the middle of nowhere, far away from any valid military target.
AFU are now using drones to mount terror attacks on unprotected Russian cultural sites because Russian military targets are too well hardened.
Days ago, President Trump warned publicly that many “very bad things” might happen if Putin didn’t get serious about peace in Ukraine.
THIS is a “very bad thing” to happen to Putin.
Ergo, might this not be something Trump helped make happen?
“Maybe the better Questions are How many can they build? How fast? And at what cost?”
NATO now says that KB Mashinostroyeniya is suddenly producing more than 200 9K720 Iskander M missiles per year. Russian forces are firing 5 or more per day, so that estimate may be low.
JSC Votkinsk Machine Building Plant probably suspended production of the Avangard (because it requires a close proximity aircraft launch) and transferred the product technology to KB Mashinostroyeniya. The airspace over Ukraine is now impossibly hostile to aircraft and the Russians are relying on missiles, drones, and artillery for strikes.
“Not sure how one concludes from analyzing satellite imagery that something is more concealed.”
Subsurface features can now be identified by at least 7 different types of satellite-borne sensors with significant detail and assurance. Thermal and hyperspectral imagery, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), gravimetry, and magnetometry are all used to observe underground facilities, such as those in Gaza and Iran.
Given that the originating source said that the server had remained unsecured for years, probably not.
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