An American source said this Wednesday, December 11, that Russia could strike Ukraine with an Orechnik missile, capable of carrying a nuclear charge, “in the coming days.”
Russia promised this Wednesday, December 11 “an answer” to the Ukrainian attack carried out, according to her, in the morning with American ATACMS missiles against a military airfield in the south of its territory, a red line for Moscow. Recently, in response to similar strikes, President Vladimir Putin threatened to use Russia's experimental Orechnik hypersonic missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead, to bomb decision-making centers against Kyiv, as well as against Western countries aiding Volodymyr Zelensky to carry out attacks on Russian soil. A senior American official warned on Wednesday, on condition of anonymity, that Russia could strike Ukraine with an Orechnik missile. “in the coming days”.
After obtaining the green light from Washington and London in November to fire American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow long-range missiles into Russian territory, Kyiv carried out strikes in Russia using these precise weapons, which have each time angered Moscow. Faced with the strikes from Kyiv, Russia fired an Orechnik missile on a Ukrainian city on November 21, a warning to Westerners according to the Kremlin and an unprecedented escalation in nearly three years of a high-intensity conflict. Despite threats from Vladimir Putin, these attacks continued this Wednesday, according to Moscow.
In a statement, the Russian military said that “six American-made ATACMS ballistic missiles” had been used to target the Taganrog military airfield in the Rostov region (southwest) in the morning. Two of them were “dejected” et “the others […] hijacked by electronic warfare equipment”, she assured. Falling debris “caused injuries to staff” of this military site and two buildings were notably “damaged”, the army continued, without further details. The Ukrainian authorities, for the moment, have not claimed responsibility or commented on this alleged operation.
