L’Ukraine was again targeted by multiple Russian ballistic missile strikes on Thursday, November 21. Between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., seven Kh-101 cruise missiles targeted the city of Dnipro, in the center of the country, as well as… an intercontinental ballistic missile. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the latter was launched from the Astrakhan oblast, in Russia, almost 1,000 km away.
This is the first time that Russia has launched such a missile against Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24, 2022. It comes a few days after the United States gave Ukraine authorization to strike Russian territory with Atacms missiles, followed shortly after by the United Kingdom with Storm Shadow missiles.
Nouveau missile Oreshnik
“In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, on November 21 of this year, the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex,” Vladimir announced Putin during a statement. “One of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems has been tested in combat conditions, in this case with a ballistic missile equipped with non-nuclear hypersonic equipment. Our rocket scientists called it Oreshnik. »
It could reach speeds of Mach 10, or 2.5 to 3 km/s, which would make its interception very difficult, if not impossible. “The use of a ballistic missile against Ukraine today is further proof that Russia has no interest in peace,” judges Volodymyr Zelensky, who regrets that there is no “ strong reaction from the world.” The missile would have targeted a military-industrial complex, without images taken on the ground showing significant damage.
In a video taken at the time of the attack, we see six points of light falling at regular intervals on the city. Ballistic missile experts see this as the entry into the atmosphere of projectiles, suggesting that the Oreshnik was “mirved”, to designate the English acronym MIRV (Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle). To put it simply, a missile can be equipped with several conical warheads, nuclear or not, which will separate once they exit the Earth's atmosphere. Each warhead is independent and can strike a different target. This technology is the prerogative of the major nuclear powers. For example, the M51 missile, on which the French nuclear deterrent is based, is “mirved” with around ten nuclear warheads.
This missile test firing is part of a long series of threats of nuclear apocalypse used by the Kremlin to dissuade the United States and European countries from helping Ukraine. Thirty minutes before the shot, Moscow had warned Washington through nuclear risk reduction channels. The use of an intercontinental ballistic missile constitutes a worrying new step in a series of strategic signals which increasingly appear as direct threats.
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