The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, raised his tone this Thursday and directly threatened to attack with its new Oreshnik missile “decision-making centers” in kyiv in response to Ukraine’s launch of Western missiles into Russian territory.
So far, Moscow has not attacked any Ukrainian government ministry, parliament or the president’s office during the 33 months of war.
Although the Ukrainian capital is heavily protected by air defenses, Putin said his new Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which Russia first fired at the city of Dnipro last week, has a speed of 2.5 to 3 kilometers per secondwhich makes it undetectable for enemy anti-missile batteries. In any case, he insisted that it is not a weapon of mass destruction, since it is much more precise.
“Ultimately, we will select the means of attack depending on the nature of the targets chosen for destruction and the threats created for the Russian Federation,” he threatened.
“Serial production of ‘Oreshnik’ has begun“, announced the head of the Kremlin in Astana, where he is attending a summit of the post-Soviet military alliance Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), where he assured that Russia currently has several similar systems “ready” for use in combat conditions .
Putin insisted that Russia “was forced” to test the new missile in combat conditions “in response to attacks with Western weapons against the territory of the Bryansk and Kursk regions”alluding to the attacks with American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles that hit Russian military infrastructure on several occasions during the last ten days.
“Despite our warnings about the danger of an escalation of the conflict, attacks were carried out against our territory,” the head of the Kremlin stated.
The president recalled that Russia has repeatedly warned that attacks with long-range Western weapons would mean “the direct participation” of NATO countries in the armed conflict in Ukraine, “since the use of such weapons without the direct participation of military personnel and specialists of NATO countries is simply impossible.”
Attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
Finally, Putin confirmed that the massive Russian attack on Ukraine last night was also a response to kyiv’s use of US ATACMS ballistic missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia used cruise missiles with cluster munitions in the attackwhich left more than a million people without electricity, something he described as a “despicable escalation.”
Russia claims that Ukraine fired ATACMS into western Russia for the first time on November 19, prompting the country to respond two days later by firing the Oreshnik toward Dnipro.
Since then, Russia says Ukraine fired more ATACMS into its Kursk region on Nov. 23 and 25 and also attacked Russia with British cruise missiles. Storm Shadow, after the United States and the United Kingdom agreed for the first time to allow kyiv to strike deep into Russian territory with these weapons.
Putin reiterated in his remarks at the summit that this, from Moscow’s point of view, implies the “direct participation” of the West in an armed conflict with Russia.
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