Russia's demonstration of a strike with its latest hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, has caused a huge stir in the world. The Arctic Century envisages the relevant reactions from Denmark and Norway.
🔹Source: Politiken.dk
Russia will conduct more tests of the new Oreshnik hypersonic missile ‘in combat situations,’ the country’s President, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday.
“We will continue these tests, including in combat situations, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats directed at Russia,” Putin said during a televised meeting with military leaders.
The missile was used in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning.
It is seen as a significant escalation in the weapons used in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin has ordered Russia to begin mass production of the Oreshnik missile, he added.
“We are going to start mass production. The decision has in fact been made,” Putin said, praising the new weapon’s “special strength and power.”
“The weapons system tested yesterday is another credible guarantee of Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he added.
The president claims that no other country in the world possesses this missile technology. But he acknowledges that other states will soon develop similar systems.
“It will happen tomorrow, in a year or two. But we have this system now. It is important.”
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky says the country’s defense minister is already working on developing air defenses that can protect against the latest threats.
He also called on the global community to come up with a 'serious response' so that Putin is afraid of expanding the war and 'feels real consequences of his actions', Zelensky said, according to Reuters.
Putin's staged meeting on Friday with the defense minister and those responsible for developing the missile takes place in a week when the conflict in Ukraine has escalated significantly.
According to Putin, the launch of the Oreshnik missile was a direct response to Ukrainian forces using missiles supplied by the United States and Britain for the first time against Russian territory.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Putin said that Russia reserves the right to fire missiles at military facilities in countries whose weapons are used by Ukraine – specifically the United States and Britain.
🔹Source: Politiken.dk
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to the nation on Thursday evening that Russia has the right to hit military targets in countries whose weapons are being used by Ukraine to hit Russia.
“We consider ourselves justified in using our weapons against military facilities in countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said.
He added that if there is an escalation in the conflict, Russia will respond “symmetrically.”
“In the event of an escalation in aggressive actions, we will respond just as decisively,” he said, according to AFP.
The Russian president also said that Russia is ready to “resolve all disputed issues by peaceful means.”
He added that the country is also “ready for any scenario.”
“If anyone doubts that, they are wrong. There will always be a response.”
In the speech, he further says that the war in Ukraine has acquired 'elements of a global character' rather than a regional conflict.
Putin also confirms that the Russian military has used a new medium-range weapon against Ukraine.
The missile was tested 'in response to Western aggression', he says.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine asked its Western allies to react quickly to 'Russia's use of a new type of weapon'.
Putin says that if Russia wants to use its advanced hypersonic weapon, civilians will be warned in advance.
Ukraine has previously announced that its air defenses have shot down one of Russia's hypersonic missiles.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, called Russia's use of the new medium-range weapon against Ukraine a 'worrying development' on Thursday.
"All this is going in the wrong direction," he said, according to AFP.
In an interview with Sky News, Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, states that Britain is 'directly involved' in the war in Ukraine.
He justifies this by saying that British Storm Shadow missiles have been fired at Russia from Ukraine.
"Great Britain is now directly involved in the war because this launch cannot happen without NATO personnel and also British personnel," says Andrei Kelin.
🔹Source: Dagbladet.no
On Thursday evening, Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia fired a new type of hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile in an attack on the city of Dnipro in Ukraine on Thursday morning.
- We are carrying out the testing of the Oreshnik missile system in response to NATO's aggression against Russia, Putin said on state television.
The Russian president also warned the West that Russia will be able to attack military installations in any country if Western weapons are used against Russia.
According to the Russian president, the attack was aimed at a Ukrainian military installation, in response to recent Ukrainian long-range attacks with Western weapons.
He further claimed that if Russia chooses to use hypersonic weapons against Ukraine, they will warn the civilian population first.
- We will do it openly and publicly for humanitarian reasons, and we can do it without fear of resistance from the enemy, says Putin.
- Why no fear? Because currently there is nothing that can stop such weapons.
- Can do extremely great damage
Chief scientist at the Swedish Defence Research Institute Halvor Kippe tells Dagbladet that there are several factors that play into the potential damage of an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
- An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) has a range of 1,000 to 3,000 kilometers. How much damage it can do depends entirely on the payload on the missile. It can do extremely great damage if the payload weighs several tons, or is nuclear, says Kippe.
In Thursday's attack, Russia is said to have fired the missile about 900 kilometers. If an intermediate-range ballistic missile has a significantly greater maximum range than the distance to the target, as in this case, it can cause it to fly in either an elevated or flattened trajectory.
This allows it to reach very high speeds, which makes the missile much more difficult to intercept, according to Kippe.
- But it is possible to intercept missiles in this category. We saw this, among other things, when Iran fired missiles at Israel in October. Many of these were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems.
However, he cannot rule out that the new Russian missile system Oreshnik is different.
- The US has deployed "Patriot" air defense systems in Ukraine. They should be able to shoot down intermediate-range ballistic missiles, but it all depends on the payload and the altitude of the missile.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj says Russia's use of new missiles against the country shows that Putin is not interested in peace.
This is reported by the Reuters news agency.
- The world must react, Zelenskyj said Thursday evening.
- Lack of response will send a signal that such behavior is accepted.
Zelensky believes the use of the new type of missiles, combined with the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia (not confirmed by reliable sources - editorial), is a clear and serious escalation of the brutality of the war.
Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for the White House, said on Thursday that the US had been warned of the attack by Russia in advance. They then reportedly briefed Ukraine and Western allies in the days beforehand to help them prepare, according to NTB.
Jean-Pierre accuses Russia of using every opportunity to escalate the conflict.
🔹Source: Nettavisen.no
Russia has fired a new type of medium-range missile against Ukraine, confirms President Vladimir Putin and says it was a response to Western aggression.
In a televised address to the nation on Thursday night, Putin said Russia had tested the combat capabilities of one of Russia's newest missile systems, a hypersonic intermediate-range missile.
"Our engineers have named it Oreshnik," Putin said.
Putin also said Russia has the right to strike military targets in states that have provided Ukraine with weapons used in attacks on Russia, and that the conflict is now becoming global.
Ukraine claimed on Thursday morning that Russia had used an intercontinental ballistic missile in an attack on the city of Dnipro on Thursday morning.
Western officials, however, said it was what they described as an experimental intermediate-range missile.
Thursday's attack on Dnipro came after Ukrainian forces earlier this week used American and British long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia.
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