Russia to notify before using new ‘Oreshnik’ mid-range missile which has no countermeasure

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has successfully fired a hypersonic missile with a conventional warhead into Ukraine, warning that Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets.

In a televised address on November 21 evening, Putin said that there are currently “no countermeasures for the Oreshnik missile” and assured that Russia will issue notifications before using this type of missile, state media reported.

“We will do it due to humanitarian concerns — openly, publicly, without any concerns about any countermeasures from the enemy, who will also receive this information”, Putin said according to TASS news agency. “Why without any concerns? Because there are currently no countermeasures for this weapon at this moment”, Putin was cited as saying by the Russian news outlet.

The new Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile which was used for the first time and struck a defence production site in Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk), was fitted with a conventional warhead, but is designed to carry a nuclear charge as well, according to the TASS report.

Putin said that Russia is entitled to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries that allow their weapons to be used against targets in Russia. When using Oreshnik in the future, Russia will issue warnings in advance, allowing civilians to leave zones designated as dangerous, the Russian leader was cited as saying.

Putin, in his televised address, said that that the strike was in retaliation to the attacks by US-made ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles on Russia.

Russia said it struck Yuzhmash, a Ukrainian aerospace plant, with the nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missile, only carrying a conventional warhead this time. The missile was codenamed Oreshnik by its designers, which can roughly be translated as ‘hazelnut tree,’ Russian state media cited Putin as saying.

The Oreshnik attacks targets at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometers per second and as per Russian state media, modern air defence systems and missile defence systems deployed by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept such missiles.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Defence is terming the new kind of missile launched by Russia against the Ukraine as “intermediate-range ballistic missile,” or IRBM, in that it’s the first time a weapon of its kind has been used on the battlefield in Ukraine, said the deputy Pentagon press secretary. “I can confirm that Russia did launch an experimental intermediate range ballistic missile”, said Sabrina Singh during a briefing on November 21 at the Pentagon.

“This IRBM was based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile model. In terms of notifications to the United States, the United States was prenotified, briefly, before the launch, through nuclear risk reduction channels”, she said. Singh also said an IRBM and an intercontinental ballistic missile have similar flight paths, high trajectories and can carry large payloads. “But the main difference lies in the range and the strategic purpose”, she said.

As per an explanation by the CNN, the weapon known as Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV), carries a series of warheads that can each target a specific location, allowing one ballistic missile to launch a larger attack. MIRVs were developed during the Cold War to permit the delivery of multiple nuclear warheads with a single launch. The Minuteman III, which is the States’ ICBM, is armed with MIRVs. Further, the Pentagon has described Putin’s remarks as “dangerous, reckless rhetoric”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on X termed the firing of the new medium range ballistic missile by Russia as a “a cynical violation” of the United Nations Charter and said it was “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war.”

Zelensky said that Putin is “testing” Kyiv’s partners with his actions and called on world leaders to put pressure on Moscow. Zelensky accused Russia of taking a “second step toward escalation,” saying the first escalatory step was involving North Korean troops in the war.

Till the year 2019, the United States and Russia were both party to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned the testing and deployment of missiles traveling between 310 and 3,400 miles. The United States quit the INF treaty in 2019 soon followed by Russia.

In his televised address yesterday, Putin was cited by TASS as saying that the United States has made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a “far-fetched pretext.”

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the US Defence Department confirmed that the United States would provide to Ukraine antipersonnel landmines.

“What we’ve seen most recently is because the Russians have been so unsuccessful in the way that they have been fighting they’ve kind of changed their tactics a bit and they don’t lead with their mechanized forces anymore,” US Defence Secretary Llyod Austin said on the sidelines of the 14th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus in Laos. “They lead with dismounted forces who are able to close in and do things to kind of pave the way for mechanized forces,” he said.

Further he said that in the face of changing tactics, the Ukrainians have been manufacturing their own landmines to slow down Russian advances.

The US has also announced an additional USD 275 million security assistance package for Ukraine, which was the 70th tranche of aid since August 2021. This Presidential Drawdown Authority package provides critical capabilities, including munitions for HIMARS, artillery, anti-tank weapons, drones, and protective equipment.

The Pentagon spokesperson in her briefing yesterday told reporters that the United States has no plans of updating its nuclear posture following Russia’s combat test of its new Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range missile. “We haven’t seen any adjustments that we’ve observed in their nuclear posture, and we haven’t adjusted our nuclear posture in exchange,” she said.

Putin had earlier this week on Tuesday approved changes to Russia’s nuclear weapons policy. It states that that any aggression against Russia by a non-nuclear state that is carried out with the participation or support of a nuclear state will be considered a joint attack. Russia said it may use nuclear weapons in the event of a conventional attack against itself or Belarus that “creates a critical threat to their sovereignty or territorial integrity”.

It further said that nuclear deterrent is aimed not only at other nuclear states but also at other countries that allow their land, water or airspace to be used to prepare or conduct aggression against it.

Putin signed a decree approving the Foundations of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence, the country’s updated nuclear doctrine.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine provides for the possibility of a nuclear response to the use of Western non-nuclear warheads against Russia. Earlier, he said that the US decision to allow Ukraine to use American missiles to attack deep into Russia meant a “qualitatively new round of escalation of tensions.” (ANI)