Hit ukraine with new mid range ballistic missile says putin on tv

Hit ukraine with new mid range ballistic missile says putin on tv

Air defences cannot intercept the Oreshnik, which attacks at a speed of Mach 10, the Kremlin leader says; Moscow has the right to strike countries whose weapons are used by Ukraine to hit Russian territory, he adds in a defiant message to West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the country’s forces had hit Ukraine with a new mid-range ballistic missile.

Mr. Putin said in a televised address that Russia carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems... Our engineers named it Oreshnik,” which means hazel tree in Russian.

Russia struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a barrage of missiles early on Thursday.

Mr. Putin said in his address that Russia launched a combined strike on a defence industry target in Ukraine. He described Oreshnik as a “ballistic missile” that was deployed in this case “in a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration”, saying that the “test” had been successful and had hit its target.

Air defences cannot intercept the Oreshnik, which attacks at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometres per second, Mr. Putin said. He said Russia was testing the Oreshnik in combat conditions “in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries towards Russia.”

‘Right to strike’

Mr. Putin also said that Moscow has the right to strike countries whose weapons are used by Ukraine to hit Russian territory, in a defiant message to the West.

The Kremlin leader also warned the conflict had taken on “elements of a global character” and stressed Moscow was ready for “any scenario” in its confrontation with Kyiv and the West.

Mr. Putin was delivering a surprise address to the nation on state TV after days of escalation in the nearly three-year conflict that has seen Ukraine fire U.S. and U.K.-supplied missiles at Russian territory for the first time.

“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Mr. Putin said.

“In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond just as decisively,” he said.