The Russian government says Thursday’s ballistic missile strike against a target in Ukraine was intended to send a warning to its Western adversaries of the possible consequences of allowing Ukraine to use Western ordinance to attack targets inside Russia.
A spokesman for the Kremlin said that the missile – a new design called the Oreshnik – was used against a military target. He added that Russia had informed the US some 30 minutes before the launch, although it had no duty to do so.
The Oreshnik has never been used in combat before; it carried a conventional warhead, but could conceivably be used to deliver a nuclear payload.
Western intelligence assessments believe that the system had a range sufficient to reach NATO members in Europe if fired from Russia, though not the US.
[Image: Анна Иларионова from Pixabay]