Putin touts Russia’s new missile and sends NATO ominous warning

Russia’s new ballistic missile hit a military-industrial facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, but its real mission was to deliver a deadly new message to NATO.

Hours after Thursday’s strike sparked 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 toward its target at 10 times the speed of sound.

“The modern air defense systems that exist in the world and the anti-missile defenses created by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept such missiles,” Putin declared in an icy and menacing tone.

The attack marked the first time such a missile had been used in war – or any conflict.

The dramatic events came in a week of rising tensions as Ukraine hit targets in Russia with longer-range US-made missiles after the US eased restrictions on their use and Putin responded by lowering the threshold use of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.

What is the new rocket?

Putin said the missile is called “Oreshnik,” which means “hazelnut” in Russian, and that this first combat test of it “was successful.”

He said in July that Russia would begin producing intermediate-range missiles to “mirror” US plans to deploy such weapons. In his speech on Thursday, he said that Russia developed the Oreshnik in response to the US development and deployment of missiles with a similar range.

Intermediate-range missiles, or IRBMs, can fly between 310 and 3,400 miles. Ukrainian military officials said the missile was launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea, 500 miles to the east.

While Russia has launched cruise missiles into Ukraine from even greater distances, the new intermediate-range missile marked the first such use of this type of ground-launched ballistic missile, which can carry a much heavier conventional payload and it could also be equipped with multiple nuclear warheads. .

Putin boasted that the missile, the latest in Russia’s arsenal of hypersonic weapons, reaches its target at speeds of Mach 10, rendering Western missile defenses useless.

Matthew Savill, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute, noted that the missile used on Thursday had a range “well beyond anything seen before in this conflict and possibly the first ever used in combat”.

He said the missile was capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even if they were less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles.

Video of the strike showed six trails of fire followed by loud explosions — an apparent sign of multiple warheads being used. The authenticity of the videos could not be independently confirmed.

As for Putin’s claim that Western systems would not be able to intercept the missile, Savill said “they are pretty hard to defend against,” even for the advanced US Patriot systems.

“Leave multiple independently targetable warheads, MIRVs, at extremely high speed, so even the Patriot will struggle to basically intercept them,” he said.

What is Putin’s message to the West?

Putin described Thursday’s use of the Oreshnik as a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian military installations in the Bryansk and Kursk regions earlier this week with Western-supplied weapons.

One of those strikes killed and wounded an unspecified number of Russian servicemen, which the Kremlin leader said added “global elements” to the conflict.

Putin has previously warned that using Western weapons would mean Russia and NATO are at war.

“We believe we have the right to use our weapons against the military installations of countries that allow their weapons to be used against our installations,” he said. “And in the event of escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively in a mirrored manner.”

If Russia launches more strikes on Ukraine with the new missile, it will give advance warning of its use to allow civilians to reach safety as a “humanitarian” gesture, Putin said, adding that Moscow was not concerned about informing the enemy, because he cannot stop the attack

“I would recommend the ruling elites of countries that are making plans to use their military contingents against Russia to seriously think about it,” Putin said.

Savill said the new missile sends a fear-mongering signal from Russia that “we have things that upset you”.

The broader message to the West is that “we are happy to enter into a competition around intermediate-range ballistic missiles. PS These could be nuclear tipped. Do you really want to take that risk?’”

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, which is chaired by Putin, stepped up the rhetoric by posting a video of the missile attack on Ukraine and the West’s punishment.

“So this is what you wanted? Well, you got it damn well! A hypersonic ballistic missile attack,” he posted on X.

What was the response of Ukraine and the West?

In a speech to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack and accused Moscow of using Ukraine as a testing ground for its new weapon.

“Today our crazy neighbor showed once again what they really are and how they despise dignity, freedom and human life itself. And how scared they are,” he said.

Two U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and thus spoke on condition of anonymity said Russia has only a few of this type of experimental missile in its possession and that it is not an expected capability. to be deployed regularly against Ukraine.

UK Defense Secretary John Healey told MPs that the war was at a “serious moment” and that “the frontline is now less stable than at any time” since the conflict began.

“We have seen in recent weeks a very clear escalation by Putin and his forces,” he said. “They stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy system before winter, they stepped up attacks on civilian centers that kill children, they deployed at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers on the front lines.”

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Aamer Madhani, Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.