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- Hypersonic effect: the Oreshnik strike on the plant in Dnipropetrovsk was a response to the escalation
Hypersonic effect: the Oreshnik strike on the plant in Dnipropetrovsk was a response to the escalation
The conflict in Ukraine has acquired elements of a global character after long-range Western missile attacks on Russian territory. Vladimir Putin made such a statement in his address to Russians on 21 November. According to him, despite the fact that Moscow prefers to resolve the situation peacefully, in case of escalation it is ready to respond "decisively and mirror-like". On Nov. 19 and 21, Western missiles struck military facilities in Kursk and Bryansk regions. In response, Russia struck an OPK facility in Dnepropetrovsk with a nuclear-free hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile. This is the first combat use of medium-range ballistic missiles in Russia's history, experts say. The development of the Oreshnik was not previously known either. At the same time, attacks by Western missiles cannot affect the course of the NWO, as the Russian Armed Forces are successfully advancing along the entire battle line, the president emphasized.
Putin said of the attack on Russian territory by Western long-range weapons
Vladimir Putin made an address to Russians on November 21. He announced that the territory of the country was attacked with long-range Western-made weapons: on November 19 by six US-made ATACMS missiles and on November 21 by Storm Shadow (UK) and HIMARS (US) systems against military facilities in Kursk and Bryansk regions.
Highly mobile artillery rocket system HIMARS
The President emphasized that the enemy had not achieved its goals: the fire at an ammunition depot in Bryansk Region caused by the fall of ATACMS debris had been extinguished, and there were no casualties or serious damage. In the Kursk region, an attack was carried out on one of the command posts of the "North" group, and there were casualties and injuries as a result of the attack.
It is obvious that it is impossible to use such weapons without direct involvement of military specialists of their producing countries, the head of state said.
- From this moment, as we have repeatedly emphasized earlier, the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has acquired elements of global character," Vladimir Putin said.
The use of such long-range weapons by the enemy cannot affect the course of hostilities in the special military operation zone, the Russian Armed Forces are successfully advancing along the entire battle line, he emphasized.
In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, Russian troops launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of Ukraine's defense-industrial complex. They used one of the newest medium-range missile systems for this purpose.
- One of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems - in this case a ballistic missile with a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration - was also tested under combat conditions. Our missile engineers named it "Oreshnik." The tests were successful, and the launch goal was achieved. On the territory of Ukraine, one of the largest and well-known industrial complexes since the times of the Soviet Union, which even today produces missile equipment and other weapons, was hit in the city of Dnipropetrovsk," Vladimir Putin emphasized.
Today there are no means of countering the "Oreshnik" missile, as it attacks targets at a speed of 2.5-3 km per second, and the existing enemy air defense systems do not intercept them, the president said.
- Of course, when selecting targets to be hit by such systems as Oreshnik on the territory of Ukraine in case of necessity and as a retaliatory measure, we will offer civilians in advance, as well as ask citizens of friendly states who are there to leave the danger zones. We will do this for humanitarian reasons - openly, publicly, without fear of opposition from the enemy, who also receives this information," the president said.
Russia sent the United States a notification 30 minutes before the launch of the Oreshnik through the Russian National Center for Nuclear Threat Reduction, which operates in automatic mode and maintains constant communication with a similar U.S. system, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained. Separately, he specified that the Russian side did not inform the U.S. side about the Oreshnik launch in accordance with the agreements and in accordance with the regime of informing about the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles, as Oreshnik is not an intercontinental strategic missile.
- It is a medium-range weapon," Dmitry Peskov pointed out.
The White House specified that they had also notified Ukraine and its allies in advance about the upcoming launch of Oreshnik. It is noteworthy that the US ambassador to Ukraine, Brigitte Brink, was not embarrassed by the Russian ballistic missile strike: she called for further military support for Kiev in her social media accounts.
Ability to overcome missile defense
Such a secret development of the domestic defense industry as the Oreshnik medium-range system could have been created on the basis of the Iskander ballistic missile using a new-generation solid fuel engine, according to Dmitry Kornev, a military expert and editor of the Military Russia website. According to him, "we have witnessed the first combat use of [medium-range ballistic] missiles in Russia's history."
- In the development of missiles of this type, as well as in the creation of hypersonic combat equipment for such missiles, Russia has a priority in the world rocket industry," he recalled. - In the spring of 2024, a new Iskander-class ballistic missile with an enlarged engine was first shown in a video for the 78th anniversary of the Kapustin Yar test site. It may well turn out that this was the Oreshnik.
The system can overcome any modern existing missile defense system, military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia. Moreover, it can destroy well-protected bunkers at great depths without using nuclear weapons, he added.
Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system
Vladimir Putin emphasized that combat tests of the Oreshnik missile system are being conducted in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries against Russia.
- Not Russia, but it is the US that has destroyed the system of international security and, continuing to fight, clinging to its hegemony, is pushing the whole world towards a global conflict. We have always preferred and now we are ready to solve all disputable issues by peaceful means, but we are also ready for any development of events. If anyone still doubts this, it is in vain - there will always be an answer," he said.
Today, the US is indeed violating any international obligations, crossing all red lines, and, of course, Russia will respond to this, military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.
- One of our responses to the West's actions was just the creation of a medium-range hypersonic missile, which the president called "Oreshnik." And its testing in combat conditions. In particular, today it hit the Ukrainian factory Yuzhmash, where the world's largest strategic missiles Satan or Voyevoda were made. They had 10 warheads, each was 750 kilotons. This is a demonstrative strike that will make the West think twice about its direct involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. After all, the next time the strike could be carried out on them," the expert said.
In his opinion, if the missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar test site, it means that it is a solid-fuel two-stage ballistic missile and can carry a nuclear warhead.
- Now it carried conventional fragmentation or fuzed warheads. "Nuttall is a medium-range hypersonic missile, so it is impossible to shoot it down. And in the creation of hypersonic missiles Russia is ahead of the planet, in particular, we still have the Kinzhal, Avangard, Zirkon," Litovkin summarized.
According to a researcher at the Center for Strategic Planning Studies of the E.M. Lomonosov IMEMO, Russia is ahead of the rest of the world in the development of hypersonic missiles. According to Ilya Kramnik of the Primakov Russian Academy of Sciences, the development of the missile has been secret until now.
- We can assume that we are dealing with a new generation of Russian missile of intermediate range, i.e. it is the upper range of intermediate range - from 2,500-3,000 and above, but not intercontinental, somewhere up to 5,000 kilometers. It is obviously equipped with a separating warhead with individual guidance units," the expert told Izvestia. He admits that it is a Yars-M missile system reduced by one stage.
Moscow's response to strikes with long-range Western weapons
In his address, Vladimir Putin emphasized that the development of medium-range and shorter-range missiles is being carried out as a response to US plans to produce and deploy medium-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The US made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Elimination Treaty in 2019, he added. At the same time, today they are not only producing this equipment, but also practicing the issues of transferring their advanced missile systems to different regions of the world, as well as conducting training on their use.
- Let me remind you that Russia voluntarily, unilaterally undertook a commitment not to deploy medium-range and shorter-range missiles as long as American weapons of this kind do not appear in any region of the world," Vladimir Putin said.
Now the Russian Federation will decide on further deployment of medium- and shorter-range missiles depending on the actions of the enemy, Putin said. The targets to be hit during further tests of the latest missile systems will be determined based on threats to Russian security.
- We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities, and in case of escalation of aggressive actions we will respond with the same decisive and mirror-like response. I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously think about this," the head of state said.
The actions of the Joe Biden administration led to this dangerous escalation, as they directly supplied the Ukrainians with long-range missiles to strike Russia, said Jeremy Kuzmarov, an American expert and editor-in-chief of the political magazine CovertAction.
- This was done by Biden without congressional authorization, which is illegal, which is why some lawmakers tried to impeach him. The Biden administration also provided Ukraine with billions and billions of dollars worth of weapons to kill people in eastern Ukraine and attack the Russians. The entire conflict was triggered by the 2014 coup organized by the Obama administration in Ukraine that overthrew the legally elected leader Viktor Yanukovych. "The US provided Ukraine with a huge amount of weapons after the coup and turned Ukraine into a CIA playground," Jeremy Kuzmarov told Izvestia.
President-elect Donald Trump, according to the expert's assessment, is likely to de-escalate the situation as he may enter negotiations. However, it is still unclear whether he will agree to terms favorable to Russia.
Such an outcome of events - the conflict's exit from the regional level to the international plane - was obvious, since the current head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been constantly involving the countries of the collective West, according to Alexei Zhuravlev, first deputy chairman of the State Duma defense committee.
- It has long been clear that Zelensky 's plan consists in the single word "gimme" addressed to the Western public. There is nothing in his "victory plan" concerning Ukraine. Everything depends only on the Western partners, nothing depends on Ukraine, actually. It is a very strange plan of victory for Ukraine, in which it is assigned the role of only going and dying. He would also very much like to drag NATO into direct participation in hostilities with Russia," Aleksey Zhuravlev told Izvestia.
Reaction to the escalation in the world
Reaction to the Russian leader's statements began immediately. The office of the UN Secretary General called on the parties to the conflict in Ukraine to take urgent steps to prevent escalation. Donald Trump's election headquarters said that the new American president will try to restore world peace, but with an emphasis on American power.
The discussion around allowing the Ukrainian armed forces to use Western long-range weapons deep into Russian territory heated up sharply in September amid the Ukrainian army's failures on the battlefield. In early fall, Western media actively wrote about the intention of the United States and Great Britain to approve strikes on Russian rear areas with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles. The talks between British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and State Department head Anthony Blinken in Kiev on September 11 fueled the excitement.
It was assumed that the main outcome of their meeting would also be the lifting of the ban on strikes against Russia, but no statements were made at the time. As a result, neither President Joe Biden nor British Prime Minister Keir Starmer made any decisions. The Times noted that Starmer "began to discard caution" about using missiles to strike deep into Russia after Biden withdrew his objections to missile strikes.
ATACMS missile
France also lifted its restrictions on the use of long-range weapons, allowing SCALP missiles to strike Russian territory. By the way, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced the transfer of ten additional missiles to Kiev. Against this background, Germany stands apart. On November 18, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz again assured that Berlin does not intend to transfer Taurus cruise missiles, which are capable of reaching Moscow, to Ukraine. In addition, the FRG still does not authorize strikes with its weapons deep inside Russian territory.
By deciding to use Oreshnik ballistic missiles, Vladimir Putin is demonstrating that the Russian army is ready to defend itself against enemy attacks by any available means, Andrei Krasov, first deputy head of the State Duma defense committee, told Izvestia. Making changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine was an extreme warning to the collective West, the politician emphasized. Today the army is armed with the most modern military equipment, in terms of its characteristics are not inferior, and often superior to the weapons of the enemy, he concluded.
Alena Nefedova, Anastasia Kostina, Semyon Boykov, Bogdan Stepovoy worked on the material
