In comments to the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kazakhstan, Putin said: “This is like a falling meteorite. We know from history where meteorites had fallen and what the consequences were. What lakes were formed.”
The hypersonic intermediate-range weapon has been making headlines after Russia used it to target a large weapons factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. It carries dozens of homing warheads and can hit targets while traveling at speeds ten times faster than the speed of sound.
Putin said at the time that the strike was in response to the “aggressive actions of NATO members” backing Kiev and came shortly after the U.S., along with Britain and France, reversed their previous stance and gave Ukraine the green light to fire long-range missiles they provided them against military targets inside of Russia.
Putin is very confident that the Oreshnik is in a class of its own, saying that it “has no counterparts in the world, of course, and I believe none will appear anytime soon.”
He has also said that he could strike Kiev with the missiles, announcing: “We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial facilities or decision-making centres, including in Kyiv.”
Kiev enjoys better protection from air defense batteries than much of the rest of Ukraine, and it has not sustained very many damaging strikes during the war so far. However, that may not be enough if Putin’s assertions about the missile are true; he said that when it is used several times on a single location, it is “comparable in strength to a nuclear strike.”
“Anything located in the strike center is obliterated into elemental particles, reduced to dust,” he explained.
Putin is unlikely to do anything dramatic before Trump takes office, some experts believe
According to some analysts, Putin may have wanted to show off the weapon but will not create any further escalations before Trump takes office. He has already praised the incoming American president as “intelligent” and appears to be trying to make a good impression on him.
He also suggested that Biden’s decision to let Ukraine use long-range weapons in Russia may have been a way of making things more difficult for Trump in terms of his relationship with Russia when he takes office, although he believes that Trump will “find the solution” to the war in Ukraine.
Trump has vowed to negotiate an end to the war when he regains power, and he has already named retired army general Keith Kellogg to serve as his envoy for Russia and Ukraine.
Some experts believe that Moscow is preparing to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. In fact, missile and drone attacks this week left more than a million households without power. They often target the country's power grid, and Ukraine is expected to have trouble keeping up with the demand for energy this winter.
Half of the country's energy capacity has already been destroyed in the war, and Ukrainian officials appear to believe that Russia has been stockpiling missiles so it can carry out coordinated strikes against its power infrastructure to create miserable conditions during the winter months.
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