Russia’s Missile Expansion Exposes the Illusion of Peace

Introduction
Moscow talks about peace. But its actions tell a different story. A recent investigation by the Kyiv Independent reveals that while the Kremlin hints at negotiation, it is pouring resources into expanding its missile production. This industrial surge, centered at the Votkinsk plant, underscores Russia’s intent to wage a long war in Ukraine while strengthening its nuclear strike capabilities against the democratic world. You can watch the full investigation here: Kyiv Independent video.

Votkinsk: A State Arsenal on the Rise

Votkinsk is home to one of Russia’s most important missile factories. The Kyiv Independent identifies the Votkinsk plant as central to both short-range and intercontinental missile production. It manufactures the Iskander system, used in repeated strikes on Ukrainian cities, and also assembles nuclear-capable missiles.

The plant is state-owned and directly sustained by government resources. Propaganda videos boast of 2,500 new workers, five additional buildings, and 7,000 pieces of new equipment. Job postings advertise for engineers, CNC machine operators, electromechanics, and machinists. Satellite images confirm new construction, providing visual proof of the expansion. The Kremlin frames this growth as a national achievement even as ordinary Russians face inflation and declining living standards.

The consequences are devastating. In April, an Iskander missile struck a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing 20 civilians, including nine children, and injuring 75 more. These missiles are not abstract instruments of power. They are weapons of terror directed at civilian populations.

How Sanctions Are Being Circumvented

The Kyiv Independent documents how the Votkinsk plant has managed to grow in spite of sanctions. Procurement records show that precision CNC milling machines, critical for missile manufacturing, were imported during the war. Many were produced in Taiwan and incorporate Japanese systems but entered Russia through Chinese subsidiaries and Russian front companies.

By using intermediaries, the plant avoids appearing on import records. Official propaganda insists that Votkinsk relies on domestic equipment, but the most advanced machinery has been imported since the invasion began. In early 2023, the plant signed contracts through Russian intermediaries to procure new systems from China. Most arrived in 2024, underscoring China’s role as Moscow’s number one partner in sanctions evasion.

A Production Surge on a National Scale

The results are striking. As the Kyiv Independent reports:

• Russia produced around 700 Iskander missiles in 2024, nearly three times more than the 250 manufactured in 2023.
• Launches of these missiles against Ukraine increased more than fourfold over the same period.
• More than 10 Russian enterprises are now involved in the Iskander production chain, building bodies, guidance systems, and fuel before final assembly at Votkinsk.

This is not a temporary wartime surge. It is a deliberate, coordinated expansion across Russia’s defense industry.

Beyond Ukraine: Long-Range Nuclear Missiles

The most alarming revelation in the Kyiv Independent’s investigation is the renewed production of Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles. On March 31, 2022, just one month after the full-scale invasion, Russia’s Ministry of Defense ordered Votkinsk to manufacture a new batch.

Bulava missiles are designed for long-range nuclear deployment from submarines. They have no relevance for combat in Ukraine. Their intended targets are thousands of miles away, including NATO allies and the United States. This confirms that Russia’s military planning is aimed not just at Ukraine but at global confrontation with the democratic world.

What Democracies Must Learn

The Kyiv Independent’s findings are a warning. Russia is not preparing for peace. It is preparing for prolonged war and nuclear intimidation.

  1. Sanction loopholes must be closed. Export controls require tighter enforcement and international coordination.
  2. Independent journalism must be protected and supported. Without investigations like this, the scope of Russia’s buildup would remain hidden.
  3. Transatlantic unity must be reinforced. Russia’s actions are a direct challenge to European security and U.S. global leadership.

Conclusion

“Look not at what Russia says, but what it does,” the Kyiv Independent reminds us. Russia is accelerating missile production at Votkinsk, producing weapons that devastate Ukrainian cities and long-range nuclear systems designed to intimidate democracies across the globe.

For Ukraine, for Europe, and its allies everywhere, the lesson is urgent. Peace will not come from rhetoric but from action. Words of peace mean nothing while missiles roll off state-owned assembly lines, aimed at civilians and democratic nations alike.

Picture Caption: Aftermath of Russian attack on Kurakhove city (Donetsk region of Ukraine) by Iskander missiles in the evening of 21 September 2023. A two-story building was destroyed by a direct hit; a total of 23 apartment buildings, a school, 2 shops, transformer, garages and 8 cars were damaged. 15 civilians and a police officer were injured. Photo by: National Police of Ukraine 

Eduard Topol’s Open Letter to Donald Trump: Why Putin Cannot End the War in Ukraine

On August 11, 2025, Soviet-born writer and filmmaker Eduard Topol published an open letter addressed to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The letter, released by Kontinent, a Russian-language outlet in the United States, has since circulated widely online. In it, Topol argues that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot stop the war in Ukraine, not because he does not want to, but because history shows that ending foreign wars has often triggered domestic unrest and even regime collapse in Russia.

Below is the letter in full. 

Dear Mr. President!
Dear Donald!

As the author of fifty books and a dozen films about Russia, I consider myself entitled to inform you.

You must know that he (Putin) cannot stop the war with Ukraine, even if you gift him your Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Trump Tower in New York, and a dozen of your golf clubs.

And not because he doesn’t want a break from war, but because he simply cannot.

Because he knows Russian history not from Medinsky’s textbooks, but the real one:

The return of Russian troops from Europe after the victory over Napoleon led to the anti-tsarist “Decembrist” uprising in 1825.

Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War led to the 1905 Revolution.

The desertion of a million Russian soldiers from the Russo-German front during World War I forced Emperor Nicholas II to abdicate and caused the February Revolution of 1917.

The peace signed by Lenin with Germany allowed the Bolsheviks to execute the entire royal family.

The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in February 1989 marked the beginning of the USSR’s collapse.

Knowing this, Putin cannot end the war with Ukraine and bring his troops home.

Only the opportunity in May 1945 to keep almost his entire army in Europe as occupation forces helped Stalin avoid a postwar coup.

That is why Putin dreams of occupying Ukraine, as well as the Baltics, Finland, Poland, etc., to keep his army far away from Moscow.

He remembers how 525,000 soldiers returning from Afghanistan in 1989 turned into bandits—“Afghantsy”—who terrorized the entire population of the USSR.

And he knows what will happen if one and a half million soldiers, trained to kill, loot, and rape professionally, return home from the Ukrainian front.

The war with Ukraine has allowed Putin to get rid of two million of the most active opponents of his regime, whom he forced to flee Russia, while the rest of the young Russian men he either drove to the front or recruited into punitive services.

Today, any war—against Ukraine, the Baltics, NATO, anyone at all—is the best way to enforce Russia’s obedience to Putin and his junta.

Unfortunately, none of your advisers will explain this to you before your meeting with Putin, but you can check my arguments with Jack Matlock and Michael McFaul.

I do not want Putin—a KGB man, a thief, and a murderer of millions—to keep brazenly deceiving you, lying, and misleading my President.

Of course, I am not a military expert or political scientist, but I am a writer with a good memory.

I remember how Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II managed to push oil prices down to $9 per barrel, gave the Afghans “Stingers,” and thereby stopped Moscow’s takeover of Afghanistan and destroyed the USSR.

If you want to stop Putin and the imperial ambitions of at least half of Russia’s population, you need to do the same—bring oil prices down to at least $25 per barrel and give Ukraine the weapons that will help it crush the aggressor.

As for your desire to establish U.S.-Russian business partnerships, not in words but in reality, this could happen in a hundred years—or never at all.

If you are interested in why, call me and I will explain.

Respectfully,

EDUARD TOPOL, citizen of the U.S. and Israel and Author of International Bestsellers Red Square, Submarine U-147, Red Snow, and the new books Criminal Kremlin: From Lenin to Putin: 57 Kremlin Murders and Operation Frantic Joe

Closing Thoughts

Whether one agrees with Topol’s prescriptions or not, his message is clear: Putin is locked into war as a strategy for survival. The historical parallels he draws, from Napoleon to Afghanistan, serve as warnings that for Russia, peace has often been more destabilizing than conflict.

For Trump, and for the West more broadly, Topol’s point is straightforward: the only way to curb Putin’s ambitions is through pressure and support for Ukraine, not compromise.

President Trump signed H.R. 3364 (2 August 2017)

On 2 August 2017, President Donald Trump signed H.R. 3364, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which included provisions related to sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The law, specifically in sections 253 and 257, reaffirmed the United States’ policy of not recognizing territorial changes effected by force, including Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. These sections explicitly stated that the U.S. “does not recognize territorial changes effected by force” and will “never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Government of the Russian Federation or the separation of any portion of Ukrainian territory through the use of military force.”

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