Putin confirms attack with medium-range missile and threatens more

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed an attack on Ukraine with a new medium-range missile and threatened further strikes. In a video speech he called the system Oreshnik. It operates at hypersonic speeds and cannot be intercepted, said the Kremlin chief.

Six warheads from a Russian missile were suspected to have struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning. There were no nuclear explosives, Putin said.

He spoke of a reaction to the fact that the USA and other Western countries had allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons on Russian territory. “We have repeatedly emphasized that the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character,” Putin said.

At the same time he called the new system the Moscow’s response to the US stationing medium-range missiles in Europe and the Pacific wanted.

According to Ukraine, the target of the Russian attack was, among other things, companies and critical infrastructure in the central eastern city of Dniproit said. According to local authorities, an industrial enterprise was damaged in Dnipro. Two fires also broke out in the city. One company is said to be a site for the production of rockets.

Military factory probably target of attack – Moscow does not want to comment

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on “X”: “Today our insane neighbor has once again revealed his true nature – his contempt for dignity, freedom and human life itself.” It is obvious that Putin is using Ukraine as a testing area. “It is also clear that he is afraid of a normal life next to him. A life in which people live with dignity. A country that wants to be free and has the right to be independent.”

According to Putin, if there are further possible attacks, Russia will warn the civilian population with Oreshnik so that they can leave the danger zone. He didn’t talk about a nuclear attack. However, experts see the use of several warheads as an indication that the rocket could also be equipped with nuclear weapons from a technical point of view. There is no data on the new rocket yet, and the type designation has not yet appeared.

The use of long-range missiles on both sides is seen as a dangerous escalation in the Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country, which has been ongoing for more than 1,000 days.

Ivan Stupak, a Ukrainian military expert and former intelligence officer, said on television that the Russians had tried several times to hit the military factory in Dnipro with missiles. However, it was probably so well secured that the cruise missiles used could not cause any major damage. The rocket now used could have approximately three times the explosive power of conventional rockets. Nothing is yet known about the extent of the damage to the factory.

For him, the operation shows the Russians’ desperation because they saw no other way to respond to the Ukrainian strikes with American and British missiles in Russia.

Former Ukrainian ambassador to the US, Valeriy Chalyy, commented on the attack: “This is not a signal to Ukraine,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “This is an attempt to increase Russian nuclear blackmail against Europe and provoke a reaction from allies in the United States who fear a third world war. “It is essentially a psychological operation because from a military point of view, such an operation is absolutely inappropriate given the normally long range of the missiles and their inaccuracy without a nuclear warhead.”

Chalyy also points out that Ukraine has been attacked by Russia in the past with nuclear-capable missiles such as the Kh-55 cruise missile.

Already on Wednesday, November 20, the Ukrainian media had spread information about Russia’s preparations to test the RS-26 Rubesh. The reports said that this could be either a test launch from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region or an actual launch. The reports caused considerable panic among the population. (with agencies)