President Vladimir Putin said the Russian government fired an experimental hypersonic missile into Ukraine on Thursday in response to the United States and Britain allowing Kiev to use advanced Western weapons against targets inside Russia. .
Russia’s president said the nuclear-capable Oleshnik missile targeted the Dnipropetrovsk factory, which was once the Soviet Union’s secret rocket manufacturing facility.
Ukraine described it as an intercontinental missile, but both the Russian president and U.S. officials classified it as an intermediate-range ballistic missile, without specifying the type. A NATO spokesperson said it was an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile.
A senior Ukrainian military official told the Financial Times that the missile was an RS-26 Lubezh, which has a maximum range of 6,000 km.
Some analysts dispute the RS-26’s classification as an intercontinental missile, arguing that its shorter range than most intercontinental ballistic missiles puts it in a gray area between that designation and intermediate-range missiles. I am doing it.
However, the 2010 New Start Nuclear Arms Control Treaty between the United States and Russia defined ICBMs as “ground-based ballistic missiles with a range of over 5,500 km.”
Prior to Thursday, no ICBMs had been recorded being used in the conflict.
President Putin said Russia would respond with “escalation.” . . Resolutely and accordingly. ” He added that Russia reserved the right to use weapons against military targets in countries where Ukraine has authorized the use of weapons against Russian forces.
Ukraine said it had intercepted six accompanying Russian missiles, but did not mention the RS-26, which was launched from Russia’s southern Astrakhan region.
British Defense Secretary John Healy on Thursday referred to “unconfirmed reports” of a “new ballistic missile” launched toward Ukraine, which Russia “has been preparing for months.” Berlin officials said a confirmed ICBM attack would “once again demonstrate President Putin’s inhuman ruthlessness.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday’s X: “Our insane neighbor has once again revealed its true nature.”
He added that the Russian missile’s “velocity and altitude suggest an intercontinental ballistic capability.” The investigation is ongoing. ”
Local authorities said two people were injured in the attack. It is not clear what the missile was aiming at or the extent of the damage.
U.S. officials said Russia likely has only a few of these missiles and that Ukraine has withstood “numerous attacks, including missiles with significantly larger warheads.” They added that the weapon was not “game-changing in this conflict.”
NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said the attack was another example of Russian aggression against Ukrainian cities.
“Russia aims to terrorize Ukrainian civilians and intimidate those who support Ukraine in order to protect itself from Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression. It cannot change the course of the conflict or prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine.”
Pavel Podvig, a senior fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, wrote of X: It has relatively low accuracy and high cost. ”
“However, this type of attack may have signaling value,” he added.
The use of the RS-26 comes after Ukraine launched a long-range U.S.-made Atakum missile and a British Storm Shadow into Russian territory in recent days.
In response to the Atakum attack, Russia changed its nuclear doctrine and lowered the standards for first use of a nuclear weapon.
The range of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which are designed to carry nuclear warheads between continents, is much longer than that of missiles such as Atakum and Storm Shadow, which can fly between 250 and 300 kilometers.
The Russian government has previously used short-range, nuclear-capable missiles to attack Ukraine. The Russian military has repeatedly launched Iskander, a ground-launched short-range ballistic missile, and Kinzhal, an air-launched hypersonic missile, both of which can carry nuclear warheads.
Most intercontinental ballistic missiles have a much longer range than the RS-26 and can fly between 8,000 km and 15,000 km.
Podvig said: “The RS-26 is not really an intercontinental missile. Although it has been tested at ranges of over 5,500 km, it is essentially an intermediate-range missile.”
Fabian Hofmann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, said footage of the attack suggests the missile was only used to deploy a nuclear warhead and carried multiple reentry vehicle payloads that could be targeted independently. He said there was.
“The signal here is, ‘Today’s attack was with a non-nuclear payload, tomorrow it could be a nuclear payload,'” Hoffman said. “It certainly had no military value. If it was meant to attack a specific target, there would have been many more capable missile systems for that purpose.”
The strike comes two months before President Donald Trump re-enters the White House. The president-elect of the United States has promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine, but has not said how.
Ukrainian military expert Mykhailo Sams said Russia needed to notify the United States of its plans to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to avoid the risk that American systems would mistake it for a nuclear attack on NATO. He said he was deaf.
He added that Ukraine’s air defense does not have the capability to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Cartography by Stephen Barnard
Additional reporting from Berlin by Guy Chazan
