File photo of Russian missiles
Moscow: After Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspected Russia of using an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) against his country on November 21, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin clarified that it was one of Russia’s latest medium-range missile systems, ‘Oreshnik’.
He claimed these missiles attack targets at a speed of Mach 10, which is 2.5 to 3 kilometres per second. “Air defence systems currently available in the world and missile defence systems being created by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept such missiles. It is impossible,” he claimed while addressing the military personnel of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, Russian citizens, his friends across the globe, and those “who persist in the illusion that a strategic defeat can be inflicted upon Russia”.
Putin said the latest medium-range missile system was successfully tested in field conditions, in this case carrying a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile and hitting the city of Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine – one of the largest industrial complexes from the Soviet Union era, which continues to produce missiles and other armaments.
He claimed that the Russian Armed Forces delivered a combined strike on the facility within Ukraine’s defence industrial complex yesterday in response to the deployment of American and British long-range weapons.”
“We will determine the targets during further tests of our advanced missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation,” he said.
He “advised” civilians residing in those areas to leave danger zones as Russia may choose, “if necessary and as a retaliatory measure”, to use systems such as Oreshnik to hit the Ukrainian territory.
“We are conducting combat tests of the Oreshnik missile system in response to NATO’s aggressive actions against Russia. Our decision on further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites,” he, however, said.
Also read: Did Russia strike Ukraine with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles today?
Russia is developing intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Putin claimed the United States was not only producing such equipment but had worked out ways to deploy its advanced missile systems to different regions of the world, including Europe, during training exercises for its troops. “Moreover, in the course of these exercises, they are conducting training for using them,” he said.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities, and in case of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in a mirror-like manner. I recommend that the ruling elites of the countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously consider this,” he warned. He went on to say that the US made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 “under a far-fetched pretext”. It may be mentioned that the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) was an arms control treaty between the US and the Soviet Union (and its successor state, Russia).
According to the Russian President, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, instigated by the West, continues with the United States and its NATO allies previously announcing that they authorise the use of their long-range high-precision weapons for strikes inside the Russian Federation. “Experts are well aware, and the Russian side has repeatedly highlighted it, that the use of such weapons is not possible without the direct involvement of military experts from the manufacturing nations,” he reiterated.
On November 19, 2024, Putin claimed that six ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles produced by the United States, and also yesterday, during a combined missile assault involving British Storm Shadow systems and HIMARS systems produced by the US, attacked military facilities inside the Russian Federation in the Bryansk and Kursk regions.
“From that point onward, as we have repeatedly emphasised in prior communications, the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has assumed elements of a global nature. Our air defence systems successfully counteracted these incursions, preventing the enemy from achieving their apparent objectives,” He said.
Putin claimed while the fire at the ammunition depot in the Bryansk Region, caused by the debris of ATACMS missiles, was extinguished without casualties or significant damage, in the Kursk Region, the attack targeted one of the command posts and the attack and the subsequent air defence battle resulted in casualties, both fatalities and injuries, among the perimeter security units and servicing staff.
“I wish to underscore once again that the use by the enemy of such weapons cannot affect the course of combat operations in the special military operation zone. Our forces are making successful advances along the entire line of contact, and all objectives we have set will be accomplished,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
