(In Ukraine) The Ukrainian secret service (SBU) on Sunday showed a small group of journalists, including AFP, the fragments of a new Russian ballistic missile, identified Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “Orechnik”, a previously unknown weapon which he said struck an arms factory in Dnipro.
Posted at 8:48 a.m.
A few hours after this shot presented by the Kremlin as a “signal” to the West and to Kyiv, Vladimir Putin boasted of the success of the Russian strike with a new hypersonic missile, which he had named “Orechnik”.
The Russian army fired this experimental missile in “response”, according to the Kremlin, to recent Ukrainian attacks carried out against Russia with American and British missiles.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian SBU showed a small group of journalists metal debris, more or less large, lined up on a fake grass, coming from a Russian missile fired Thursday, it claims, against the city of Dnipro, there where “Orechnik” struck, according to Moscow, the factory of the Ukrainian group PivdenMach which notably produces components for missiles.
PHOTO VALENTYN OGIRENKO, REUTERS
A Ukrainian secret service investigator shows parts of a ballistic missile, which Russia used in a strike towards Dnipro on November 21, 2024.
The meeting with the SBU took place in a secret location for security reasons.
On this occasion, the Ukrainian SBU did not wish to publicly confirm that it was debris from “Orechnik” but assured that it was “the first time” that the Ukrainian forces had seen such a projectile since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“This is the first time that debris from such a missile has been found on Ukrainian territory,” said an SBU investigator named Oleg.
“This object had never been documented by security investigators before,” he said, explaining that it was “a ballistic missile”, which corresponds to “Orechnik”.
The investigator assured that Kyiv would provide “subsequent answers” on the precise characteristics of the missile presented.
PHOTO ROMAN PILIPEY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Parts of a missile that were collected for examination at the impact site in the city of Dnipro after an attack on November 21, 2024.
According to Vladimir Putin, who outlined some of the characteristics of “Orechnik” on Thursday evening, this “intermediate range” hypersonic missile can go at speeds of Mach 10, or “2.5 to 3 kilometers per second”.
Friday, during a televised meeting with military officials, the Kremlin master assured that Moscow had a reserve of these missiles “ready for use”.
He also ordered its mass production and subsequent use in tests, notably “in combat situations”, after announcing on Thursday that Russia was “ready” for “all” scenarios in its conflict against Ukraine and the West.
