Vladimir Putin has claimed Moscow launched a new hypersonic ballistic missile against Ukraine in response to strikes by Kyiv inside Russia using UK and US long-range missiles.
The Russian leader said the Oreshnik, or Hazel, medium-range missile had been used in the strike on Dnipro, central Ukraine, after Ukraine said a longer-range intercontinental warhead was launched.
He also said Russia could attack military facilities in countries that have allowed Kyiv to use their missiles to strike Russia, in an apparent threat to the US and UK.
he Kremlin added on Friday that the missile launch was a message to the West that Moscow will respond harshly to any “reckless” Western actions in support of Ukraine.
“We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against military facilities of the countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities,” he said.
So what is the experimental Oreshnik missile, and could it be used to hit European countries? The Independent takes a look below.
Ukraine’s air force initially said the missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – the kind that Russia could hit the United States with.
But the US military later said the weapon was an intermediate-range missile based on the design of Russia’s longer-range RS-26 ICBM missile.
The Pentagon said it was fired with a conventional warhead but Moscow could modify it if it wanted, with Russia only possessing a handful of them.
“It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed on Friday that all of the missile’s warheads had hit their targets and hailed what it said was its first successful use of an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile with conventional warheads in combat.
While launching an intermediate-range missile is a less threatening signal, the incident could still set off alarms and Moscow notified Washington briefly ahead of the launch, according to US officials.
The Kremlin said Russia had not been technically obliged to warn the United States about the strike because the missile used had been intermediate-range rather than intercontinental, but added that Moscow had informed the U.S. 30 minutes before the launch anyway.
Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said it could carry six to eight conventional or nuclear warheads, and was probably already in service.
