Russia ups the ante: it attacked Ukraine tonight with an Oreshnik hypersonic missile, undetectable and with nuclear capability. It is the second time that Moscow uses this ammunition to hit its adversary. A strange use of one of the Kremlin’s most advanced weapons, in the midst of a wave of attacks, when temperatures are the coldest of winter in the area.
“The Russian Armed Forces launched a massive attack with long-range, high-precision land and sea weapons, including the Oreshnik medium-range mobile land-based missile system,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported in a statement this Friday. He links this coup to an alleged drone attack that took place at the end of December against one of the residences of the Russian president, . An answer, they say.
Ukraine always denied having attacked said building, a point that was also questioned by the president of the United States. The CIA has assessed that Ukraine was not targeting a residence used by Putin, according to US officials cited by the US press.
Both the Ukrainian authorities and the military suggested that the Russian army could have used Oreshnik to hit energy targets in the western region of Lviv, bordering Poland, indicates EFE.
Why is it important
The Oreshnik, which in Russian means “hazel”, is one of Russia’s newest weapons and travels at a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound (over Mach 10, more than 12,000 km/h or 3.4 km/s), with a range that allows it to reach all of Europe, according to data from the head of Russia’s missile forces, indicates the .
The missile can contain multiple warheads and carry conventional or nuclear payloads. Moscow used it for the first time in November 2024, hitting the Ukrainian city of Dnieper, although the weapon was not yet fully developed.
Its range is intermediate, but its power lies in the aforementioned speed and its evasion capacity, which drastically reduces the reaction time for defense systems and makes it very difficult to intercept currently.
These are its main features:
- Weight: 30,000 to 40,000 kilos
- Effective range: 3,000-5,500 kilometers
- Explosive: Conventional or nuclear MIRV warheads.
- Detonation: Programmed detonator.
- Propellant: Solid fuel rocket.
The Russian president has ordered its mass production and its deployment is considered a strategic challenge for NATO due to its ability to overcome missile defenses. Last month, Russia released a video of what it said was the deployment of the Oreshnik missile system to its close ally Belarus.
The Oreshnik, which Putin announced would enter service at the end of 2025, was first used in December 2024 against a military factory in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.
New blows
The attack on Oreshnik came hours after Moscow repeated that European troops deployed in Ukraine as part of any future peace deal would be considered “legitimate targets,” and by the United States on Wednesday.
In the same note tonight, Russia adds that it hit “vital infrastructure in Ukrainian territory” last night both with medium and long-range land- and sea-based missiles, as well as assault drones, which would have reached their targets.
These would be, he says, energy infrastructures and factories producing unmanned devices in enemy territory.
Local media have confirmed that in the capital, kyiv, there has been a combined Russian attack that has so far left four dead and 24 injured. Among those killed, a paramedic who had gone to a residential area to treat those injured by a first drone attack, who was surprised by a second barrage of missiles, indicates the State Emergency Service (SES). There are five SES workers and three more doctors injured by this attack.
The police add that as of 07:00 local time, damage had been documented in six districts of the city and, specifically, multi-story residential buildings and houses, a daycare center, garages, cars and infrastructure have been affected. “The police, together with employees of the SES and other services, continue working at the site, recording and documenting the consequences of another war crime,” the statement added, notes EFE.
