As both countries struggle for battlefield superiority to gain the upper hand in negotiations to end nearly three years of war, Russia will soon launch a new, more lethal medium-range ballistic missile. could be launched again toward Ukraine, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that an attack could take place “within days.” He added that while the United States does not believe the missile, called Oreshnik, will change the situation on the battlefield, Russia is “looking to use whatever weaponry it has to intimidate Ukraine.”
He said the United States was issuing the warning based on a new intelligence assessment, but could not provide other details, such as where Russia might attack.
U.S. officials said early Wednesday that the United States is watching Russia prepare to relaunch the missile it used for the first time last month.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
The threat comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the war and Western allies have indicated that negotiations could begin this winter.
Singh said the United States would continue to support Ukraine, including with additional air defense systems designed to protect the country from air attacks. Just days ago, the United States promised Ukraine nearly $1 billion in new security aid, including munitions for air defense.
Russia's Ministry of Defense also said Moscow was prepared to retaliate after Ukraine used six US-made ATACMS missiles to attack a military air base in Taganrog in the southern Rostov region on Wednesday, injuring a soldier. suggested something.
It said two of the missiles were shot down by air defense systems and four others were deflected by electronic warfare assets.
“This attack by Western long-range weapons will not be ignored and relevant measures will be taken,” the ministry said in a statement.
This is not the first time U.S. officials have warned of potential Russian actions or strategic moves as part of a diplomatic effort that could send a message to Russia and sway its decisions.
In the run-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States openly discussed intelligence that Russia was preparing to move troops to Kiev. It later publicly announced that it was deploying operatives in eastern Ukraine to carry out a “false flag” operation that would create an excuse for the Russian military to invade.
U.S. officials say Russia has only a handful of Oreshnik missiles, and they have smaller warheads than other missiles Russia regularly fires into Ukraine.
Russia first launched a missile on November 21 in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Surveillance camera footage showed a huge fireball tearing through the darkness and slamming into the ground at alarming speed. This was the first time this weapon was used in combat.
Within hours of the attack on military facilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unusual step of speaking on state television and boasting about a new hypersonic missile.
He warned Western countries that the next use could be against Ukraine's NATO allies, who have allowed Kiev to use long-range missiles to attack inside Russia.
The attack came two days after President Putin signed a revised version of Russia's nuclear principles that lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons.
This principle recognizes the possibility of a nuclear response by Russia to a conventional attack on Russia by any state supported by a nuclear-weapon state.
The attack comes shortly after President Biden agreed to ease restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S.-made long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, and the U.S. has given Ukraine counter-insurgency measures to slow Russia's battlefield. This also happened just one day after the announcement of the provision of landmines. progress.
“We believe that we have the right to use weapons against military installations of countries that allow the use of weapons against our installations,” Putin said at the time.
He also warned that the new missiles could be used against other facilities in Ukraine, including the government area of Kiev, and last month the Russian General Staff announced that the He said he was selecting potential targets for the future. Create a center in Kyiv.
The Russian president declared, “When selecting targets for attack by systems such as Oleshnik on the territory of Ukraine, we will ask civilians there and nationals of friendly countries to leave the danger zone in advance.''
President Putin praised Oleshnik's capabilities, saying that multiple warheads that hit a target at Mach 10 are immune to interception and are so powerful that using multiple warheads in one conventional attack can be considered a nuclear attack. He said it could be just as destructive.
“With a sufficient number of these advanced weapons systems, the use of nuclear weapons will almost become unnecessary,” Putin charged in a speech on Tuesday.
The Pentagon announced that Oreshnik is an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) based on Russia's RS-26 Lubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
They say it is not technically a hypersonic missile because it does not have a hypersonic glide vehicle to propel the missile during most of its launch and reentry.
Medium-range missiles can fly 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles).
Such weapons were banned under a Soviet-era treaty that the U.S. and Russian governments scrapped in 2019.
Fighting is escalating as both Russia and Ukraine scramble to gain the upper hand in future negotiations.
With President Trump taking office next month, questions have also been raised about the extent to which the United States will continue to provide aid to Kiev.
President Trump has in recent days advocated for Russia and Ukraine to reach an immediate ceasefire, saying that Ukraine should probably prepare to reduce U.S. military aid. President Trump wrote on social media over the weekend that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “wants to make a deal and stop the madness.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced a $988 million long-term aid package over the weekend.
This funding is in addition to an additional $725 million in U.S. military aid announced earlier last week, including anti-drone systems and HIMARS munitions, drawn from the Pentagon's stockpile to more quickly deploy to the front lines. It turns out.
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, the United States has provided more than $62 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
