Device carried multiple conventional warheads and hit the city of Dnipro in the early hours of this Thursday (21)
IGOR GIELOW
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS) – Russia fired an intercontinental missile designed for use in nuclear war in combat for the first time in history, in an attack against Ukraine. According to the Kiev Air Force, it carried multiple conventional warheads and reached the city of Dnipro in the early hours of this Thursday (21).
The Ukrainian Air Force’s accusation was confirmed by analysts consulted by the report using georeferenced images from social networks, although it is possible that the range of the weapon in question does not qualify it as intercontinental.
American networks and the Reuters agency, citing anonymous authorities, say that the US believes that a smaller range model was used. The images of multiple objects hitting the ground are consistent with missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, whatever their range.
There are six salvos with various objects, which do not cause large explosions, suggesting the use of kinetic ammunition – which uses its hypersonic terminal speed to cause great damage, without the need for explosives.
Analysts speculate that it could be an intermediate-range ballistic model, the IRBM in its English acronym, equally designed for use in nuclear wars as the intercontinental model, the ICBM. Without buying a final version, renowned Russian expert Pavel Podvig wrote in X that the attack “should be taken seriously”.
Even the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry relativized the Air Force’s statement, calling for global reaction “to the use of a new type of weapon by Russia”, according to spokesman Heorgii Tikhii. “If it is confirmed that it was specifically an intercontinental missile, then it can be said that Russia has degraded to the status of North Korea, which from time to time launches such missiles.”
In the middle of a press conference, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, answered a call on her cell phone whose content was leaked into the microphone: in it, someone told her not to “comment on the ballistic missile attack”. Whether it was something planned to increase the suspense surrounding the issue is unknown.
The action, which involved other missiles, in any case represents a dramatic symbolic sign in the war, which is experiencing a dangerous moment of escalation.
It began over the weekend, when the authorization given by the United States so that Kiev could employ American missiles with a range of up to 300 km against targets inside Russian territory was revealed.
Volodimir Zelensky’s government, under great pressure on the battlefield, had been asking for the measure for months and, on Tuesday (19), carried out the first attack against a Russian arsenal 150 km from its border.
The day before, President Vladimir Putin had given yet another nuclear card in the dispute, publishing a review of his doctrine on the use of atomic weapons. The text is much harsher than speculated: in addition to providing for retaliation with these weapons in the event of any conventional attack, it considers countries and alliances that support such action to be legitimate targets.
With that, Putin put on paper what he had been saying for months. Zelensky and other Western leaders called him yet another bluff and went ahead.
On Wednesday (20), Kiev used British Storm Shadow cruise missiles against Russia for the first time, and following its manual: it fired 12 models in a concentrated manner against the Kursk region, to make their interception difficult.
He repeated the dose with two missiles this Thursday, which Russia said it shot down. But Moscow’s response against Dnipro carries dark symbolism.
According to Ukrainian media, an RS-26 Rubej (border, in Russian) model was used against the city, a smaller version of the RS-24 Iars missile (acronym for Nuclear Deterrence Rocket), one of the mainstays of Putin’s strategic forces.
It was designed for nuclear wars and can carry an estimated four warheads with a power equivalent to around 20 Hiroshima bombs each. But it is also possible to configure it to carry more conventional warheads.
The point is that, for Russia, it makes no military sense to employ such a weapon. The RS-26 is too expensive, complex and few in number for a routine war action, in this case the attack on a military production area in Dnipro.
It is designed to reach distant countries, with an estimated range of 5,800 km. Kiev says it was launched from the Astrakhan region, from a base about 800 km east of Dnipro. The target was the Iujmach military factory.
Against the hypothesis of it being an ICBM there is the fact that, by agreement, any launch of this type of missile in tests by Russia and the USA must be notified in advance, leaving it to be seen whether the rule applies in war. There are about 400 ICBMs in each of the nuclear rivals’ arsenals.
If Moscow does in fact use the weapon, something that Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did not comment on, he wanted to send an eloquent message to Kiev, Washington and allies, associating its change in nuclear posture with the use of a missile created to this type of attack.
No ICBMs have been used in wars. In the great nuclear powers, they are the basis of the strike force, combined with submarine-launched models and air-to-surface missiles and gravity bombs carried by bombers.
Analysts are unanimous in saying that Western missiles, especially the limited number that Kiev has, will not change the course of the war — which, this Thursday, saw Russia take another city in eastern Ukraine. But the domestic impact of the actions could be large, which is unacceptable for the Kremlin.
This Thursday’s attack also hit other parts of the Dnipro region. Six of seven Kh-101 subsonic cruise missiles were shot down, the Air Force said, and a hypersonic Kinjal hit the ground. There are no reports of casualties yet.
POLAND BASE RAISES NUCLEAR RISK, SAYS RUSSIA
Putin’s nuclear warning was also extended this Thursday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which criticized the opening of an anti-missile defense base in Poland. The installation opened on the 13th in Redzikowo “increases the nuclear risk”, said Maria Zakharova.
As a result, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish social networks began to speculate whether Moscow was signaling that it considered the location an eventual target for attack, since according to its new nuclear doctrine, in theory NATO would already be at war with Russia, as countries from alliance supply the weapons used against Russian soil.
Obviously, this is not the case: Putin has never officially declared war against Ukraine, calling his 2022 invasion a “special military operation”. If this prevented a total mobilization that could overcome Ukrainian resistance, it also kept the Russian public somewhat distant from the conflict, guaranteeing the president’s approval rating of around 90%.
Even so, the Warsaw Foreign Ministry went public to deny this nuclear risk, saying that there are no weapons of this type in Reddzikowo. The base is part of the American Aegis Ashore missile defense system, which also exists in Romania. Its creation dates back to the 2000s, when the objective was to protect Europe from attacks from Iran.
Even at that less tense time, Russia was already attacking the system, saying that it was aimed at its missiles and that the Aegis system can employ offensive weapons instead of interceptors. NATO denies the accusation.
