Putin says Russia could strike ‘decision-making centres’ in Kyiv

MOSCOW -  Russia may use its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile to attack “decision-making centres” in Kyiv in response to Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian territory with Western weapons, President Vladimir Putin said on Nov 28.

Russian attacks have not, so far, struck Ukrainian government ministries, the Parliament or the president’s office in the course of the 33-month war.

Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Mr Putin says the Oreshnik missile, which Russia fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted – a claim greeted with scepticism by Western experts.

“Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on Nov 21,” Mr Putin told a meeting of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries in Kazakhstan.

“At present, the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defence and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centres in Kyiv,” he said.

Mr Putin said a massive Russian overnight attack on Ukraine was also a response to Kyiv’s use of US ATACMS ballistic missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used cruise missiles with cluster munitions in the attack, which cut power to more than 1 million people, something he called a “despicable escalation”.

Russia says Ukraine fired ATACMS ballistic missiles into western Russia for the first time on Nov 19, prompting it to respond two days later by firing the Oreshnik, a new intermediate-range missile, at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Since then, Russia says Ukraine has fired more ATACMS at its Kursk region, on Nov 23 and Nov 25 and struck Russia with British Storm Shadow cruise missiles too, after the United States and Britain agreed for the first time to allow Kyiv to strike deep inside Russian territory with these weapons.

Mr Putin reiterated in his summit remarks that this, from Moscow’s viewpoint, meant the “direct involvement” of the West in an armed conflict with Russia.

Mr Putin said Russia’s production of advanced missile systems exceeds that of the Nato military alliance by 10 times, and that Moscow planned to ramp up production.

He said Russia had “several” Oreshniks ready to use – consistent with comments from US military officials last week that the new missile was experimental and Russia likely possessed only a handful of them.

Mr Putin, for the second time in less than a week, boasted that the Oreshnik was comparable to a nuclear weapon in terms of its destructive power and would atomise everything at the point of impact – but he said it would not carry a nuclear warhead or spread radioactive contamination.

Western security experts say the missile, like many others in Russia’s arsenal, could be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

Ukraine said the Oreshnik fired on Nov 21 reached a top speed of 13,600 kmh but sources said it carried dummy warheads, not live explosives.

Mr Zelensky has said Russia’s use of the new missile amounted to “a clear and severe escalation” in the war and called for worldwide condemnation.

Tensions between the warring sides have risen sharply in November with the missile exchanges, and Mr Putin last week updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine to extend the list of scenarios that might prompt it to launch a nuclear weapon.

But five sources familiar with US intelligence told Reuters that the US decision to allow Ukraine to fire American weapons deeper into Russia has not increased the risk of a nuclear attack – something they said was still unlikely, despite Mr Putin’s statements. REUTERS