The brief but terrifying black-and-white surveillance camera footage of the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro showed six enormous fireballs piercing the night and crashing into the earth with incredible speed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made the unusual move of bragging about the new, hypersonic missile on national television just hours after the Nov. 21 attack on the military installation. He cautioned the West that it might be used against Ukraine’s NATO allies in the future because they permitted Kyiv to strike inside Russia with its longer-range missiles.
The missile, according to Putin, was named the Oreshnik, which is Russian for hazelnut tree.
An examination of the weapon, its role in Moscow’s strategy, and the political message Russia hopes to convey through its use:
How well-known is the Oreshnik?
Putin grinned contentedly as he explained that the Oreshnik is impervious to any missile defense system and streaks to its target at Mach 10, or ten times the speed of sound, like a meteorite. According to Ukrainian military sources, it hit Mach 11.
The chief of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, Gen. Sergei Karakayev, stated that the Oreshnik has a range that allows it to reach any European target and can carry either conventional or nuclear bombs.
According to the Pentagon, Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) served as the model for the Oreshnik, an experimental kind of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). This was the first time a weapon of the kind was employed in combat.
The range of intermediate-range missiles is 500–5,500 kilometers (310–3,400 miles). In 2019, Washington and Moscow renounced a pact from the Soviet era that prohibited such weapons.
The missile had six warheads, each of which carried six submunitions, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate. The missile’s name may have been inspired by its payload of individually targetable warheads, which resemble a clump of hazelnuts growing on a tree.
The attack’s video seems to show six warheads encircled by clouds of plasma descending in a flaming shower. Each warhead released six submunitions, which appeared to be unarmed but possessed a high kinetic energy that was expected to provide a destructive force equal to tons of explosives.
According to Putin, the weapon is so potent that firing many of these missiles, even ones with conventional warheads, might have the same destructive effect as a nuclear attack. He boasted that it could demolish underground bunkers three, four, or more storeys below, and threatened to deploy it against Kyiv’s government district.
Ukraine s Security Service showed The Associated Presswreckage of the missilecharred, mangled wires and an ashen airframe at Dnipro s Pivdenmash plant that built missiles when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Authorities have not disclosed the extent of the plant’s damage, and there were no casualties in the incident. The 4th Missile Test Range of Kapustin Yar in Russia’s Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea is where they said the missile was fired.
Has Russia used any additional missiles?
Russia has used an assortment of missiles to pummel Ukraine since the start of its invasion in February 2022, but none had the range and power of Oreshnik.
They included subsonic long-range cruise missiles that carry about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives, enough to inflict a significant damage to Ukrainian power plants and other key infrastructure. The winged, jet-propelled cruise missiles have a range of up to 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles), able to reach all of Ukraine.
Russia also used swarms of inexpensive, Iranian-designed drones that carry only about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives. The slow-flying drones are relatively easy to intercept, but Russia used dozens of them at a time to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses and divert attention from simultaneously launched cruise missiles.
For some priority targets, Russia has used faster and harder-hitting missiles, including the ground-launched Iskander short-range ballistic missile with a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles).
For particularly important targets, Moscow has used the hypersonic Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile. Its high speed able to briefly reach Mach 10 and ability to maneuver in flight helps it evade air defenses, although Ukraine claims to have shot down a few of them.
Oreshnik is even more difficult to intercept than Kinzhal. It can inflict significantly heavier damage because of its multiple high-energy warheads.
What message is Putin sending with the Oreshnik?
Putin described the Oreshnik as a response to the U.S. and U.K. allowing Ukraine to use their longer-range weapons to strike Russian territory, a move he said gave elements of a global character to the conflict.
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.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Putin s Security Council, said Oreshnik could reach targets in Europe within minutes, inflicting catastrophic damage. Bomb shelters will not save you, he posted on his messaging app channel.
Russian state media extolled the Oreshnik, claiming it will take just 11 minutes to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO s headquarters in Brussels. T-shirts have appeared with images of Putin and the Oreshnik, and he was told at a briefing that a couple planned to name their daughter after the missile.
Military expert Mathieu Boul gue of Chatham House in Britain said that while the Oreshnik isn t a game-changer on the battlefield, in terms of psychological warfare, it works great in serving the Kremlin s goal to scare a Western audience.
The Nov. 21 attack came two days after Putin signed a revised version of Russia s nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons. The doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.
The use of the Oreshnik was an expression of Moscow s anger at the use of longer-range Western missiles and a signal to Ukraine and President-elect Donald Trump that Russia was going to pursue its goals, regardless of the support for Kyiv, said James J. Townsend, senior fellow at the Center for New American Security.
This is a very powerful message being sent, Townsend said. It s showing Trump how serious Russia looks on what the Biden administration has been doing and how seriously they look on and how angry they are about this type of assistance.
Putin s warning about potential strikes on NATO assets follows calls by Russian hawks for such attacks to force Ukraine s allies to back down.
Unlike other Russian conventional weapons with a shorter range, Oreshnik offers the capability to launch a powerful, conventional strike anywhere in Europe, giving the Kremlin a new instrument of escalation without tapping its nuclear arsenal. There will be no way to know whether Oreshnik carries a nuclear or a conventional warhead before it hits the target.
The enemy must understand that we are ready to take the most resolute steps and strike the territory of NATO members with conventional weapons first, said Sergei Karaganov, a political expert who advises the Kremlin. At the same time, we will warn them that if they respond to that attack in an escalatory way, a nuclear strike would come second, and a third wave will target American bases.
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