The Magical Spear of Odin sounds like something  pulled straight out of Norse mythology.

A   godlike weapon, perhaps offered as the reward for  completing a quest in a game of D&D.

But the spear   is real.

It’s in Ukraine right now.

And thanks  to Sweden, Ukraine has something so terrifying   in its hands that Putin knows he can’t stop  what’s coming.

Gungnir has arrived.

And there’s   nothing that Russia can do about it.

Russia knows  that is the case because Gungnir isn’t just some   weapon that Sweden has promised to deliver to  Ukraine at some point in the distant future.

It’s   not only already in Ukraine, but it was used in  one of the most devastating strikes that Ukraine   has carried out against Russia’s military and  oil infrastructure in the Black Sea to date.

We thought we knew everything that Ukraine was  willing to reveal about that strike.

On April 6,   the news broke that Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems  Forces had worked alongside the country’s naval   forces to launch a devastating strike against  Russia’s Syvash offshore oil drilling platform   in the Black Sea.

While damaging that platform  would be important for Ukraine in terms of   landing another blow against Russia’s oil  industry, the real reason why it struck the   Syvash platform was that Russia has been using it  as a surveillance and military outpost for much of   the war with Ukraine.

Radars for short-range air  defense systems had been loaded onto the platform,   along with electronic warfare systems, all of  which transformed it into a military asset,   rather than an oil one.

Ukraine took Syvash  down.

And as far as we knew, it did it using   drones.

That’s essentially what the commander of  Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi,   claimed when he announced the attack in a  Telegram post.

“The floating drilling rig   ‘Syvash’ was worked out by the Birds of 413 op  ‘Reid’ together with the forces of the Navy’s   deep-sea attack,” Brovdi declared.

And it’s not  like he was lying.

Video soon surfaced of Ukraine   attacking Syvash using drones, seemingly launched  from maritime drones sent into the Black Sea.

So,   that was it.

The operation was done and  dusted, and we knew how Ukraine had pulled   it off.

But looks can be deceiving, and Brovdi,  purposefully or not, had left out a key part of   the equation that has since been revealed.

It wasn’t just drones that struck Syvash on   the night leading into April 6.

Ukraine had also  unleashed Swedish Gungnir missiles.

On April 7,   The Kyiv Post reported that the Ukrainian navy  had revealed, and then later confirmed, the use   of the Swedish-made RBS-15 missile in the Syvash  strike.

Known as Gungnir, which loosely translates   into the “Magical Spear of Odin,” the missile is  an anti-ship powerhouse, and, until this point,   it wasn’t really known whether Ukraine had the  missile or not.

The outlet reports that a video   made public by Ukraine’s navy has revealed that  Gungnir was used in the strike against Syvash,   and that footage has sent a shockwave through  Russia.

Lasting for about 20 seconds, the footage   shows Ukraine launching its Swedish missiles  from what appears to be a ground-based platform.

The OSINTWarfare X account notes that this is the  first public appearance made by the Gungnir in   the Ukraine war, though it seems that Ukraine has  had access to Sweden’s powerful missiles for much   longer.

We’ll be getting back to that point soon.

First, the video shared by OSINTWarfare appears
to show two launches of the Swedish missile.

The Kyiv Post adds that other footage that   has surfaced shows those missiles scoring direct  hits against the Syvash platform, which it says   lies about 60 to 80 kilometers, or about 37 to 50  miles, northwest of the Crimean coast.

Comparisons   between the videos and clearer pictures of the  launchers typically used for the Gungnir offer   further confirmation that Ukraine has indeed  deployed the Swedish missile.

Don’t ignore the   proximity of the Syvash platform to the Crimean  coast, either.

That gives you some indication of   why Ukraine chose this specific oil drilling rig  to target.

The electronic warfare devices and air   defense systems that Russia has loaded onto the  Syvash platform were clearly in place to protect   Russian assets in Crimea.

Now, those defenses  are burning.

Struck by the Magical Spear of Odin,   with follow-up strikes carried out by Ukraine’s  drones, that oil drilling rig can no longer act   as an early warning system for occupied Crimea.

We anticipate reporting on a strike against the   Crimean mainland, perhaps against targets off the  coast that Syvash was protecting, in the very near   future.

For now, we can confirm that the RBS-15  is officially part of Ukraine’s arsenal.

That has   caught everybody off guard, not least Putin and  his Kremlin cronies, who thought that Ukraine was   increasingly being forced to rely on the missiles  that it is building itself as its stockpiles of   Western missiles dried up.

Syvash just showed  Putin that Ukraine isn’t in a “one of the   other” situation.

It has both its own missiles and  Western missiles, and it can use them to hit some   of the most important military assets that Russia  has in Crimea.

So, Putin has to deal with yet   another Western missile being provided to Ukraine.

And this is where things start to shift on the   battlefield.

The arrival of the Gungnir in Ukraine  isn’t just dangerous for Russia in terms of the   firepower that the missile brings to the table.

It’s also yet another sign to Putin that his   attempts to intimidate Sweden into staying neutral  have failed.

Russia has instead turned what for   centuries had been a country that tried to stay  out of war into one that is actively arming a   Russian enemy and is doing everything that it can  to stop Putin in his tracks.

We’ll be exploring   the second of these points soon, so stick with  us until then.

As for the missile that Ukraine   has just deployed to shatter Syvash, it’s the last  thing that Russia wants to see in Ukraine’s hands.

Why? A look at the basic specifications of the  missile is enough to answer that question.

Made by   Saab Bofors Dynamics, the RBS-15, or Robotsystem  15 if we want to get non-Norse about it,   is actually a full-blown family of anti-ship  missiles that have been designed to combine   the ship-shattering capabilities you’d expect  from this kind of missile with a land-attack   capability that makes it extremely versatile.

The  missile’s range can extend beyond 300 kilometers,
or 186 miles, though this depends on the specific  version of the Gungnir that is used.

The warhead   weighs around 200 kilograms, or about 440 pounds,  and the missile is almost capable of hitting Mach   1.

It comes in just under, at Mach 0.

9, but that  still translates to a speed of about 690 miles per   hour.

So, Ukraine has its hands on a missile that  moves fast, hits hard, and has a long enough range   to be used to strike all sorts of targets in the  Black Sea, Crimea, and the occupied territories of   mainland Ukraine.

The Kyiv Post adds that the  RBS-15 uses a combination of GPS and inertial   navigation to stay on track when fired toward  a target.

It also has a terminal active radar,   which gives it homing capabilities that feed into  the fire-and-forget functionality that makes the   missile so effective.

That functionality offers  precisely what it says on the tin – Ukraine can   program a target into the missile, fire, and then  forget about having to make any manual mid-flight   adjustments, as the missile handles everything  else itself.

We mentioned earlier that the RBS-15   is actually a family of missiles.

That has led  to speculation about which versions Ukraine has,   and which it used to strike the Syvash oil rig.

Naval News has some potential answers here.

It says that the footage that Ukraine’s navy  released of the missile being fired first confirms   the use of the RBS-15 because we see a double  exhaust plume emitted during the launch phase.

That’s a characteristic that the Swedish missile  is known to have, and is also one that is absent   in all of the other missiles that Ukraine is  known to have in its arsenal.

The outlet adds that   the version Ukraine used is likely to have been  either the Mk III or Mk IV variety of the Gungnir,   both of which have several upgrades over early  iterations.

The enhancement of the range up to   and over 200 kilometers, or 124 miles, is one of  those upgrades.

If Ukraine is using the Gungnir   to attack Russian facilities in the Black Sea,  that extended range is a must.

It’s also worth   noting that Ukraine’s target was a strange cross  between land and sea-based.

An offshore oil rig   isn’t exactly a ship, though you could argue that  it shares some characteristics, especially as it   is based in the ocean.

At the same time, it’s  not really a land target, though it will have   strengths and vulnerabilities that aren’t seen  on vessels.

That mishmash makes the use of the   Mk III or Mk IV version of the RBS-15 even more  likely, as these are the versions of the Swedish   missile that were made to be capable of striking  targets on land and at sea.

Versatility, then, is   key to what makes the Magical Spear of Odin such  a massive addition to Ukraine’s arsenal.

However,   there’s one more factor at play.

That factor  alone changes everything and makes the RBS-15   the perfect choice for the strike that Ukraine  just pulled off.

But before we get to that,   this is a quick reminder that you’re watching The  Military Show.

If this is the kind of insight that   you want to see, make sure that you’re subscribed  to the channel.

So, the other factor… The RBS-15   was already a good choice for the attack on  Syvash based on its range and strength.

However,   there’s something else about that platform that  we mentioned earlier in the video that may have   caught your attention.

In addition to the air  defense radars on the oil rig that Ukraine   wanted to take out, Russia has been using the  Syvash oil platform for its electronic warfare,   or EW, devices.

Through EW, Russia is able to  scramble GPS signals and send both drones and   missiles off course.

That’s where the RBS-15  comes into play.

The missile has been optimized   not only to operate in coastal and open-sea  environments, but it is also equipped with   electronic counter-countermeasures.

In other  words, the Gungnir has EW of its own that it   can use to counteract the EW Russia is employing  against Ukraine’s missiles and drones.

It’s a   fire-versus-fire approach.

And what it means  is that the RBS-15 is innately resistant to   the GPS jamming and spoofing techniques that  the EW devices loaded onto the Syvash platform   employ that stop attacks just like the one  that Ukraine pulled off on April 6.

So,   the Magical Spear of Odin likely set the stage for  what was to come later.

Ukraine used its Swedish   missiles to shatter Russia’s Syvash EW systems and  then followed up with the drone strikes that we   already knew about.

Those drones, unencumbered  by Syvash’s EW presence, could then strike the   oil drilling platform’s air defense radars with  a level of precision that wouldn’t have otherwise   been possible.

This is an incredibly intelligent  and layered approach to a strike.

Ukraine, once   again, has shown Russia that its approach to deep  strikes goes far beyond merely pointing missiles   and drones at a target and hoping that they hit.

The Syvash strike was well-planned at every stage,   and the Gungnir was key to making the whole thing  work.

That’ll worry Putin.

He knows that future   strikes against Russian assets in Crimea have been  made possible by the destruction of Syvash.

But   the real question he’ll be asking himself is how  on Earth this happened in the first place? Russia   has been caught with its pants down as Ukraine  has unleashed a weapon that it hasn’t used   before.

However, if Putin was paying attention, he  would have had at least an inkling that something   like this was coming.

Though the arrival of the  Magical Spear of Odin appears to have been quiet,   it’s actually the result of dealings between  Ukraine and Sweden that have been a long time in   the making.

Sweden set its stall out pretty early  when it came to who it supported following Putin’s   February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Way back in  June 2022, the country committed to a defense   package that would see it send anti-tank weapons,  12.

7-millimeter rifles, and, most importantly,   RBS-17 anti-ship missiles to Ukraine.

That  particular missile is essentially the Swedish   version of the U.

S.

-made Hellfire, only it had  been adapted so it could be launched from warships   or via a ground firing post that could easily be  set up and dismantled anywhere alongside Ukraine’s   coast.

That was a warning to Russia.

Sweden was  willing to arm Ukraine with missiles from the very   beginning of the Ukraine war and, as Militarnyi  noted at the time, the far more powerful RBS-15   was still waiting in the wings.

However, not a lot  seemed to happen on the Swedish missile front for   the two years after the arrival of the RBS-17.

And then…something changed.

We didn’t hear much   about it at the time, as it was underreported in  the media.

But according to The Kyiv Post, Sweden   and Ukraine signed a deal at some point in 2024  for the transfer of RBS-15 missiles to Ukraine.

That means one of two things.

Either it has taken  around two years for Sweden to deliver on that   deal, which is why we’re only now seeing the  emergence of the Gungnir in the Ukraine war.

Or   Ukraine received this missile months, if not  years, ago, and it has been waiting for the   perfect time to unleash it.

Either way, Russia  has just felt the power of the Magical Spear of   Odin.

And there could be a lot worse to come.

The  Kyiv Post adds that Sweden is far from the only   country that uses the RBS-15.

Thailand, Algeria,  Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Finland, and Croatia   also operate the missile.

Of those countries, all  of the European nations are active supporters of   Ukraine’s defense against Russia, and they have  all transferred weapons to Ukraine in the past.

Now, we know that Sweden has signed a deal with  Ukraine to transfer RBS-15 missiles.

But what   about Germany? Or Finland? Do they have deals in  the works? Have those deals already been signed,   and we just haven’t heard about them? Could  negotiations for Gungnir transfers begin now   that Ukraine knows exactly how useful its Swedish  missiles can be against Russia? These are all   questions that, for now, are unanswered.

They are  also questions that should be ringing out around   the Kremlin, as any of these nations sending  Gungnir missiles to Ukraine could mean that   more attacks against facilities like Syvash lie in  Russia’s future.

And it gets worse for Russia.

Not   only is Sweden supplying its Syvash-shattering  missiles to Ukraine, but it’s actively working   alongside Putin’s enemy on the development of more  missiles.

That’s according to Defense Express,   which reported back in January 2025 that defense  officials from Ukraine and Sweden had met to agree   on a new joint initiative for the development of  a long-range weapon.

We haven’t heard a lot more   about that deal since the Defense Express report.

But what it shows us is that military cooperation   between Ukraine and Sweden is intensifying.

Putin  has to be wondering how things got to this point.

Before he launched his invasion, Sweden seemed to  be a non-factor to Russia.

For 200 years before   the Ukraine war, Sweden had steadfastly pursued  a policy of military neutrality and non-alignment   that was designed to ensure the country didn’t  get dragged into other people’s wars.

Then,   the tanks started rolling into Ukraine, and  everything changed for the Swedes.

For the first   time in two centuries, Sweden saw a threat that  it needed to work to counter.

The attitude in the   country became clear.

First, Putin would target  Ukraine.

Then, he might shift his attention to   the Baltic and Nordic nations.

Russia’s aggression  is what led to Sweden giving up two centuries of   neutrality to become one of the newest members of  NATO.

That move was made official in March 2024,   and it led to the expansion of the collective  defense organization that Putin has often used   as one of the reasons for launching his invasion  in the first place.

Russia wanted NATO to get   smaller.

To get rid of the nations on its  Eastern flank that Putin believes encroach   too closely on Russian territory.

However,  all that Putin has achieved with his invasion,   at least from the Swedish perspective, is turning  a neutral nation into an enemy.

Beyond NATO,   Sweden has also thrown its support behind Ukraine.

We’ve touched on that already with the missile and   weapons transfers that started as far back as  June 2022.

But the alliance between Sweden and   Ukraine runs much deeper, and that is a major  problem for the Kremlin.

Since February 2022,   Sweden has contributed over $13.

7 billion to  Ukraine’s war effort.

Deals are also being signed,   as we see with the transfer of RBS-15 missiles to  Ukraine.

Other deals involve even more dangerous   assets, such as the one signed between Ukraine  and Sweden that will see the latter deliver up   to 150 of its Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine over  the course of the next decade.

Sweden even has   Russia in its cultural crosshairs, as meetings  between Sweden and Ukraine’s cultural ministers   show that it wants to work with its newest  ally on de-Russification across the board.

When Putin invaded Ukraine, he was meant to  win quickly.

The so-called “special military   operation” would be over in days, and Russia would  be able to use that victory to intimidate other   European countries.

But as Ukraine defended  itself and Russia got bogged down in a war   that has now lasted for more than four years,  all Putin has succeeded in doing is being the   catalyst for alliances to be forged that would  never have existed if his forces had stayed put.

Now, Sweden is an enemy.

One that is actively  treating Russia as the largest threat to its   national security, which is what has laid the  foundation for so much of the cooperation between   Ukraine and Sweden that we’re seeing today.

So,  the Magical Spear of Odin being unleashed against   Russia is important because of the immediate  results that it has achieved.

Ukraine’s Swedish   missiles have taken out a key Black Sea radar and  EW outpost, and that will lead to the creation of   more aerial corridors that Ukraine’s missiles  and drones can follow to hit Crimea itself.

But perhaps more important than the strike  itself is what that strike represents.

Putin   has created a Swedish monster.

And now that  this monster is working alongside Ukraine,   nowhere in the occupied territories is safe from  Ukraine’s wrath.

Gungnir isn’t the only weapon   inspired by Norse mythology that Sweden is using  against Russia.

Odin has been joined by Loki, as a   new system by Saab has been developed that offers  a pragmatic and cost-effective solution to the   Russian drone problem.