13,000 kilometers per hour and intermediate range: what is the new Russian Oreshnik missile that worries Westerners?

Through a video broadcast on social networks, Vladimir Putin confirmed this Thursday, November 21 that his troops launched a new missile counter-ballistic at intermediate range Ukraine .

The representative of Russia He declared that the offensive had taken place in response to recent attacks by Ukrainian forces who fired this week for the first time on Russian territory projectiles ATACMS (provided by USA ) And Storm Shadow (provided by United Kingdom ).

On such occasions, The projectiles were aimed at military installations located in the Bryansk and Kursk regions of Russia, respectively.

Authorization to use these arm the attack inside Russia took place after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly insisted to its Western allies for months.

Putin said on Thursday that Russia had the right to attack the military installations of countries “that allow their weapons to be used against our installations” something that could change the course of the geopolitics .

The Kremlin leader’s remarks were interpreted by various analysts as a signal not only for Ukraine, but also for its Western allies .

In fact, earlier this week, after the announcement that the United States had authorized the use of ATACMS on Russian territory, Putin updated the nuclear doctrine from your country .

It is the document that establishes the conditions under which it might consider using nuclear weapons .

With the recent update, the Kremlin will consider aggression by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation of a nuclear country, as a joint attack on Russia .

It should be remembered that already More than two and a half years have passed since Russia began invading Ukraine. on February 24, 2022.

During this time, Military and economic support from kyiv’s Western allies has been crucial so that its forces can counter the Russian offensive and even penetrate into the region of Kursk .

As was reported on Sunday, before the aforementioned attacks, The United States’ decision to allow Ukraine to use its missiles in Russia was due in part to incorporation troops of North Korea in the Russian ranks.

The Russian attack on Ukraine this Thursday against a military installation in the city of Dnipro – in the center of the country – was carried out with he Oreshnik an intermediate-range ballistic missile with nuclear capability .

However, in this offensive, Only conventional explosives were used, not nuclear warheads. .

Analysts consulted by New York Times they said that, Although the missile looks new, it is likely not significantly different from known versions. of Russian intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

The director of the missile defense project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Tom Karako, added that other missiles that Russia has already used against Ukraine , like the Iskander and the Kh-101 , They can also carry nuclear weapons .

However, The difference with the Oreshnik is that it has greater range and the ability to fire multiple nuclear warheads. when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

In Karako’s words, this represents “a sign of a nuclear threat both for Ukraine and for Europe itself (…) a very clear question.

In his speech, Putin assured that these projectiles “attack targets at a speed of Mach 10: 2.5 to 3 km per second” .

And he emphasized: “Modern air defense systems available in the world and the anti-missile systems erected by the Americans in Europe, They are not capable of intercepting such missiles. It is excluded “.

According to Ukrainian military experts, the Russian missile that hit the city of Dnipro It reached a maximum speed of more than 13,000 kilometers per hour and took only 15 minutes to reach its goal upon launch. raising new questions about Russian firepower.

Initially, after Thursday’s attack, Ukrainian authorities claimed that the Russian-occupied projectile was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM, for its acronym in English).

However, it was later reported to be a intermediate-range ballistic missile .

The United States National Security Council said in a statement Thursday evening that Russia launched ‘experimental medium-range ballistic missile against Ukraine’ .

The statement said that Russia probably had “only a handful” of these missiles and that He probably used it to try to “intimidate Ukraine and its supporters.” .

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, The projectile was launched from the Astrakhan region of Russia .

Military analyst of the Ukrainian consulting agency Defense Express, Ivan Kyrychevskyi, told the Times that launch area suggests it was fired from a truck at the Kasputin Yar training ground .

This place is a Cold War-era testing ground which is used to test weapons such as ballistic missiles and strategic bombers, among others.