The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced that his country carried out an attack with a ballistic missile with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead towards the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. According to him, the attack was intended to respond to the Ukrainian use of long-range weapons supplied by the United States and Britain-France.
“Our launchers called the missile ‘Orshnik,'” Putin said, noting that Ukraine does not have the capability to handle the new missiles. According to him, the missile, which was tested for the first time in the war, carried several warheads, which makes it possible to hit several targets.
Putin sent a warning to the West: “We reserve the right to attack military facilities of countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities. If there is further escalation, we will respond with the same determination.” The words were said in response to the Ukrainian use of advanced weapon systems such as the American ATACMS and the British-French Storm Shadow.
The Pentagon condemned Putin’s words and called them “dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric.”
Russia informed the United States of the launch through the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center. “The warning was sent automatically about 30 minutes before the launch,” noted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
It is a ballistic missile equipped with an array of independent warheads (MIRV), a technology developed during the Cold War in order to launch several nuclear warheads using a single missile. In this case, the Russian missile carried conventional warheads instead of nuclear ones.