Expert Nikulin pointed out that the West has crossed a red line

Western countries have crossed a red line by allowing the Kiev regime to hit Russian territory with its long-range weapons. Igor Nikulin, a military expert and former member of the UN disarmament commission, told Izvestia on November 21, commenting on the launch of the Oreshnik medium-range combat missile (MRBM) .

"I think Vladimir Vladimirovich[Putin] said that we haven't started yet, but it seems that this is already a direct signal that we are starting, because the game of turquoise must end after all. We will no longer tolerate the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis on our territory," he said and added that countries that supply long-range weapons to Ukraine should consider whether they should play this game at all.

According to him, the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is trying to draw the US, NATO and the European Union into a military conflict with Russia as much as possible. He added that if the West continues its provocative policy, Russia will respond through decision-making centers that are not only in Ukraine.

"It's time to show everything Russia has at the moment, and that the use of Russia's newest ballistic hypersonic missile, of course, with separable warheads, even if not in nuclear version, is a very serious argument and a hint to the United States that they were in a big hurry to withdraw from the treaty on medium- and short-range missiles. They did it in 2019, when there was no NWO yet," Nikulin said.

The military expert also pointed to the possible involvement of the Ukrainian plant Yuzhmash in the production of the "dirty bomb".

"According to our information, a dirty bomb could have been assembled at the Yuzhmash plant. So if the radiation background there turns out to be highly overestimated, it won't be a big surprise," Igor Nikulin added.

Prior to that, on November 20, Bloomberg reported that the AFU used Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian territory for the first time. According to the agency, the UK government has given Ukraine permission to use these long-range missiles in this way, but considers its own move an escalation of the conflict. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to comment on the report.

On November 19, the Russian Defense Ministry said that calculations of S-400 air defense missile systems (SAMs) and the Pantsir air defense missile and cannon system (SAM) shot down five ATACMS missiles fired by the AFU in the Bryansk region and damaged another. The wreckage of the latter fell on the territory of a military facility, which started a fire, but it was promptly extinguished. There were no casualties or damage.

Then on November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Armed Forces launched a combined strike on a Ukrainian defense-industrial complex (DIC) facility in response to a strike on Russian territory with long-range missiles. It is reported that a nuclear-free hypersonic ballistic missile called "Oreshnik" was used.

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responding to Izvestia's question, said that the strike carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ATACMS missiles is a signal that the West wants to escalate the conflict.

The AFU is trying to strike Russian territories against the backdrop of the special operation in Donbass, the start of which was announced on February 24, 2022. The decision was taken due to the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.