Just a few days after his forces fired an “Oreshnik” ballistic rocket at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, Vladimir Putin has vowed to fire more hypersonic missiles into the country.
As a result, Britain and NATO are set to hold emergency talks about the conflict with Russia on Tuesday, Sky reported.
Kyiv has said Russia may have as many as 10 of this terrifying weapon in its arsenal, with Putin vowing to mass produce dozens more of his “newest” toy.
NATO members are set to discuss the threat posed by Russia’s missiles and fears about Ukraine’s front line being on the verge of collapse.
Putin said in a meeting with military chiefs: “We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and character of the security threats posted to Russia.”
Thursday’s attack, the President added, was in response to Ukraine firing western long-range missiles into Russia last week.
Kyiv launched US ATACMS missiles against Putin’s territory overnight on November 11, followed by British Storm Shadow rockets just two days later.
While Russia’s Oreshnik rocket was fitted with a conventional warhead on Thursday, Putin warned that it could be even more devastating if used with nuclear weapons, with the Pentagon also saying that Moscow had the potential to modify the weapon.
“It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh warned.
The Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) based on an older Russian Rubezh model. Both are part of the same family as the original RS-24 Yars ICBM – a ferocious Russian weapon.
It fires off multiple warheads into the atmosphere, before they rain down on the unsuspecting territory below.
The head of Russia’s strategic missile forces vowed it could reach targets across Europe, with Putin announcing this week that military targets in the US and UK were high on his hit list.
“Russia considers itself entitled to use weapons against military facilities of countries that permit the use of their weapons against Russia,” Putin said.
“Since this moment, as we have underscored repeatedly, the conflict in Ukraine, provoked by the West, has acquired elements of global nature.”
