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.
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 sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, noted that the missile used Thursday has a range “way beyond any of that seen in this conflict so far and possibly the first ever use in combat.”
He said the missile was capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even though they are less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles.
Video of the strike showed six fiery trails followed by powerful explosions -– an apparent sign of the multiple warheads being used. The authenticity of the videos couldn’t be independently confirmed.
As for Putin’s claim that the Western systems could not intercept the missile, Savill said “these are quite hard to defend against” even for advanced U.S. Patriot systems.
“You’re dropping multiple independently targetable warheads, MIRVs, at extremely high speed, so even Patriot will struggle to basically intercept those,” he said.
What’s Putin’s message to the West?
Putin has described Thursday’s use of the Oreshnik as a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian military facilities in 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 “elements of a global character” to the conflict.
Putin has warned previously that use of the Western weapons would mean that Russia and NATO are at war.
“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. “And in case of escalation of aggressive actions we will respond resolutely in a mirror way.”
If Russia launches more strikes on Ukraine with the new missile, it will warn of its use in advance to allow civilians to reach safety as a “humanitarian” gesture, Putin said, adding that Moscow isn’t worried about tipping off the enemy since it cannot stop the attack
“I would recommend the ruling elites of the countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia to seriously think about it,” Putin said.
Savill said the new missile is sending a fear-inducing signal from Russia that “we’ve got stuff that outrages you.”
The larger message to the West is that “we’re happy to enter into a competition around intermediate-range ballistic missiles. P.S. These could be nuclear tipped. Do you really want to take that risk?’”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council that is chaired by Putin, stepped up the rhetoric by posting a video of the missile attack on Ukraine and chastising the West.
“So, that’s what you wanted? Well, you’ve damn well got it! 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 Zelenskyy denounced the attack and accused Moscow of using Ukraine as a testing ground for its new weapon.
“Today, our insane neighbor has once again shown what they truly are, and how they despise dignity, freedom, and human life itself. And how terrified they are,” he said.
Two U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive matter and thus spoke on condition of anonymity said Russia only has a few of this type of experimental missile in its possession and it is not a capability that is expected to be regularly deployed against Ukraine.
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told lawmakers that the war was at “a serious moment,” and “the front line is now less stable than at any time” since the conflict began.
“We have seen in recent weeks a very clear escalation from Putin and his forces,” he said. “They have stepped up attacks on the energy system in Ukraine ahead of winter, they have stepped up attacks on civilian centers killing children, they have deployed at least 10,000 North Korean troops to the battle front line.”
