Russian President Vladimir Putin made a list of threats and boasts in a speech Thursday morning, saying he would “of course” respond to a Ukrainian attack on Russia with Western missiles and that Ukraine's “Kyiv decision-making center” He said he was a potential target.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday morning authorized the use of U.S.-supplied weapons to attack Russia, against Russian government warnings, but ignored Russia's warning of a single test launch of a new experimental weapon. He complained that he was
At a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russia's equivalent of mini-NATO, held in Kazakhstan, Russian leaders announced the launch of the Oreshnik ballistic missile, which was launched into Ukraine last week and attracted worldwide attention. He talked about power. He said a retaliatory attack could aim to destroy “Kiev's decision-making center.” These comments are the latest in a series of threats of major retaliation and escalation by the Kremlin, but President Putin said such an attack would leave Ukraine as if it had been attacked with nuclear weapons, but that in the future He softened his remarks by saying the missile would normally be loaded with explosives.
Boasting the power of the Oleshnik missile, which Western observers have suggested is an evolution of existing Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, President Putin made several claims about its alleged capabilities. Among them: the ability to attack “heavily protected objects at depth,” the fact that no other weapon in the world can match it, and the ability to plummet from space to Earth along a ballistic launch trajectory. temperatures reaching 4,000 degrees Celsius. 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit), two-thirds the temperature of the sun's surface.
Putin said missiles are not “weapons of mass destruction” but insisted that cluster attacks with such weapons would be tantamount to nuclear attacks on cities. He said: “Using large groups of these missiles, clustering several missiles at a time and using them in a single strike, would have a power comparable to the use of nuclear weapons…Dozens of warheads (homing units) would “Attack” aim at the target at a speed of Mach 10. This is approximately 3km/s. He claimed that the explosive force was large enough to reduce the target to its constituent “subatomic particles”, “essentially turning it into dust”.
Although a frightening prospect when taken at face value, the Oreshnik is an experimental missile, and there is no indication that Russia has large numbers of them. Indeed, as footage of the first weapons test against the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk last week suggests. and as confirmed later The first Oresknik missiles did not carry nuclear or other warheads. The damage caused was apparently due solely to the kinetic energy of the missile's shell falling to Earth at great speed.
Putin has claimed that he can deploy large numbers of missiles, but Russia's military-industrial complex is so powerful that it can produce “10 times more missiles in a year than the total production of NATO countries combined.” he boasted. This number is almost certainly greatly inflated for rhetorical effect, but as Western countries took full advantage of the “peace dividend” from the end of the Cold War and spent money on other countries, the capabilities of their military industries atrophied. I'm sure he allowed it to happen. This has been brought home keenly in recent years by shortages of shells and missiles and severe barriers to expanding production, with much of NATO's time now focused on how to re-establish production lines.
Amid all the threatening statements, the Russian leader has repeatedly said he blames Western countries for supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles and allowing them to be used against Russia's interior. While this does not compare to the missile attacks Russia has been launching against Ukraine for almost three years, clearly the Kremlin is unfair or condones that Ukraine is equipped to do the same in return. You seem to think it can't be done.
Putin said the first ATACMS and Storm Shadow (US and UK missiles, respectively) were fired last week despite his “warnings” and continued despite the Oleshnik attack. He told the CSTO leaders of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that they had been “forced” to respond. “We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that this means direct involvement of these countries in armed conflict…despite our warnings about the risk of escalation of conflict.” , an attack on our territory was carried out. ”
He said continued attacks by ATACMS and Storm Shadow against the Russian hinterland would be “naturally” responded to, and said a new list of military targets was being drawn up, likely to include the Ukrainian government. “Currently, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces are selecting targets for attack on Ukrainian territory. These could be military installations, defense industrial enterprises or decision-making centers in Kiev,” Putin said.
In the speech, Ukrainian leaders were called illegal neo-Nazis, a common Kremlin claim reminiscent of the respective positions of Russia and pro-German Ukrainian fighters during World War II. .
On Thursday morning, Ukraine announced that it had become the target of a major Russian attack overnight, with Kiev state media reporting attacks on Kiev, Vinnytsia, Odessa, Volyn, Kharkov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Sumy. . The Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted dozens of missiles and drones.
In particular, Ukraine has claimed that Russia used “cluster munitions” to attack the country's power grid overnight, which President Zelenskiy denounced as a “despicable escalation” and a terrorist attack.
