Clarifies that it launched a new ballistic missile against Ukraine, not an intercontinental one // Ratifies that it could resort to its nuclear arsenal
▲ The president of Russia, in a television message, pointed out that the West ignored his warnings.Photo Ap
Juan Pablo Duch
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, November 22, 2024, p. 22
Moscow. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, addressed a message to the nation this Thursday, in which he blamed the United States for having provoked the war in Ukraine, which – in his opinion – since it authorized the use of its long-range missiles has been became a global conflictand stressed that everyone must be clear that it is impossible to inflict a strategic defeat to Russia, by reiterating that it is ready to face any scenario depending on what Washington and its allies do.
In his brief speech, broadcast live on Russian television, Putin noted that, despite Moscow’s warnings that allowing the use of its long-range weapons would be crossing the umpteenth red line and that this would not go unanswered, he confirmed that On November 19, Ukraine launched its first attack with US rockets Atacmsfollowed on November 21 by a combined coup with Storm Shadow British, who, he indicated, they did not achieve their purpose and they did not cause major damage either.
After insisting that Ukraine does not have the capacity to use long-range Western weapons on its own, he stressed that Russia reserves the right to respond with the same type of weaponry to countries that consider it possible to attack it with their missiles, and if they persist in Therefore, it would not hesitate to do so in an asymmetrical manner, implying that it could resort to its nuclear arsenal.
The Russian president stated that, in response to the attack by the United States and its allies, Russia carried out this Thursday, early in the morning, the test of a new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, without carrying nuclear warheads, against one of the most famous arms manufacturing consortia since Soviet times in the city of Dnipro, which – according to their data – was destroyed.
Will test new short and medium range weapons
He noted that Russia will continue to test, in real combat conditions, new short- and medium-range weapons in response to the aggressive measures of the White House and its allies. He noted that Moscow, unilaterally, announced that it would not install these types of weapons as long as Washington did not do so. Therefore, he added, The decision to deploy this type of weaponry will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites..
He offered that when choosing, depending on the need and as a response measurewhat targets to beat in Ukraine, In advance we are going to warn the civilian population, and the citizens of friendly countries who are there, to leave the area. We are going to do it for humanitarian considerations, in an open, public way, without fear that the enemy will take measures to try to prevent it..
Because, according to Putin, Currently, there are no air defense systems in the world capable of intercepting this type of missile.which advance at a speed of 2.5-3 kilometers per second.
He added that the missile that was tested this Thursday is one of the most modern in the Russian nuclear arsenal and that its manufacturers named it Orieshnik (which literally means hazelnut bushwhich since time immemorial has been attributed with magical properties, saying that it protects from all evils).
In this way, Putin denied his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymir Zelensky, who assured this Thursday that Russia, when launching an attack against the city of Dnipro during the early hours of the morning, used an intercontinental missile for the first time in this war. RS-26named as Rubezh; This possibility was questioned by the US Pentagon, which maintained that it was a ballistic missile, both extremes that, before the message from the Russian president was broadcast yesterday afternoon, the Russian spokespersons from the Kremlin and the Foreign Ministry did not They did not want to confirm or deny.
The Ukrainian air force, through a statement, reported that Russia attacked the city of Dnipro, where the missiles in its arsenal were manufactured in the times of the Soviet Union, with an intercontinental rocket. RS-26a ballistic Kinzhal and six cruise missiles X-101.
Apparently, all the X-101 and the other two did not cause major damage.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Dnipro, Boris Filatov, stated that, as a result of the night attack, two people were injured, an unidentified company suffered partial destruction of one of its buildings and two fires broke out.
Projectile did not carry nuclear warheads
With this balance, for experts it is obvious that if it was a RS-26 It did not carry any of the six nuclear warheads that it can carry and could even carry a test warhead without explosives or with a smaller charge, its size – 12 meters long and about 50 tons in weight – being sufficient to cause the damage it would cause when it fell. Filatov reported.
Being the Rubezh an intermediate range rocket, no more than 6 thousand kilometers of autonomy, designed to reach targets in the western part of Europe, it would not make much military sense to use one as close as Ukraine is, having to fire it 998 kilometers away from Astrakhan, between the Volga River and the Caspian Sea and, in addition, there are other less expensive options that can also carry nuclear warheads, such as missiles Iskander and Kinzhal.
For this reason, Pentagon specialists, quoted anonymously (for a change, although it is becoming customary) in numerous media outlets, were inclined to think that Russia used not a RS-26but a ballistic one, as indeed happened when Putin confirmed it.
Previously, neither the Kremlin spokesperson, Dimitri Peskov, nor the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zajarova, wanted to clarify this Thursday whether it was an intercontinental missile.
The first simply said that he had no comment to make, while the second even exaggerated a bit by interrupting her weekly rest by a call on her cell phone from a stranger – presumably someone of higher rank than her – so that everyone The reporters will hear, as if by oversight, the blunt order: Don’t confirm anythingas could be seen and heard in a video that went around on Russian social networks.