Vladimir Putin threatens to hit kyiv with his experimental “Orechnik” missile

The Russian president also once again praised the firepower of this intermediate-range weapon capable of striking anywhere in Europe.

How far will the conflict in Ukraine escalate? Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed, Thursday, November 28, that he did not rule out ordering a strike against the Ukrainian capital kyiv with its experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile Orechnik, describing it as a terribly destructive weapon.

“We do not exclude the use of Orechnik against military targets, military-industrial installations or decision-making centers, including in kyiv,” he said during a press conference broadcast on Russian television on the sidelines of a visit to Kazakhstan. At the request of a journalist, he also once again praised the firepower of this intermediate-range weapon capable of striking anywhere in Europe, even if it is not equipped with nuclear warheads.

“If you use several of these systems in one strike – two, three, four – then, in terms of its power, it is comparable to the use of a nuclear weapon.”he said. Vladimir Putin did not specify whether this missile was exclusively conventional or whether it could be equipped with a nuclear warhead, which he suggested last week after a test strike in Ukraine, presented as a response to firing of American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles on Russian soil.