AP NEWS | Published November 22, 2024
The new ballistic missile fired by Russia struck a military-industrial facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, but its real mission was delivering a deadly new message to NATO.
Hours after Thursday’s strike touched off a debate over whether the Ukrainian plant was hit by an intercontinental ballistic missile, President Vladimir Putin made a rare and surprise appearance on Russian television to clear up the mystery.
He described it as a new, intermediate-range ballistic missile that raced to its target at 10 times the speed of sound.
“Modern air defense systems that exist in the world and anti-missile defenses created by the Americans in Europe can’t intercept such missiles,” Putin declared in an icy and menacing tone.
The attack marked the first time that such a missile was used in the war — or in any conflict.
The dramatic events came in a week of soaring tensions as Ukraine struck targets in Russia with American-made longer-range missiles after the U.S. eased restrictions on their use and Putin responded by lowering the threshold for using Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.
What is the new missile?
Putin said the missile was called “Oreshnik,” which in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” and that this first combat test of it “has gone successfully.”
He said in July that Russia would start producing intermediate-range missiles to “mirror” U.S. plans to deploy such weapons. In his speech Thursday, he said Russia developed Oreshnik in response to the U.S. development and deployment of missiles with a similar range.
Intermediate-range missiles, or IRBMs, can fly between 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Ukrainian military officials said the missile was launched from the Russian region of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, 800 kilometers (500 miles) to the east.
While Russia has launched cruise missiles at Ukraine from even longer ranges, the new intermediate range missile marked the first such use of this kind of ground-launched ballistic missile, which can carry a much heavier conventional payload and could also be fitted with multiple nuclear warheads.
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SOURCE: www.apnews.com
RELATED: Putin hints at strikes on West in ‘global’ Ukraine war
n In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin delivers a televised address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 21, 2024. – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 21, 2024, that the country’s forces had hit Ukraine with a new mid-range ballistic missile. (Photo by Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / POOL / Agence France-Presse)
THE DAILY INQUIRER | Published November 22, 2024
DINIPRO, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the conflict in Ukraine had characteristics of a “global” war and did not rule out strikes on Western countries.
The Kremlin strongman spoke out after a day of frayed nerves, with Russia test-firing a new generation intermediate-range missile at Ukraine – which Putin hinted was capable of unleashing a nuclear payload.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky branded the strike a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war by a “crazy neighbor” while Kyiv’s main backer, the United States, said that Russia was to blame for escalating the conflict “at every turn.”
Intermediate-range missiles typically have a reach of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) – enough to make good on Putin’s threat of striking the West.
In a defiant address to the nation, Russia’s president railed at Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory, warning of retaliation.
In recent days Ukraine has fired US and UK-supplied missiles at Russian territory for the first time, escalating already sky-high tensions in the nearly three-year-long conflict.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said.
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