The United States believes Russia fired a never-before-used intermediate-range ballistic missile in its attack on Ukraine on Thursday. An escalation which, according to analysts, could have implications for European missile defense. This is what we know so far about the missile.
What type of ballistic missile is it?
According to the US military, the design of the Russian projectile is based on that of the Russian RS-26 Rubezh long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile appears to be experimental and Russia may only have a handful, according to sources.
The Pentagon said the missile was fired with a conventional warhead, but that Moscow could modify it if it wished.
“It could be upgraded to carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California, said Russian President Vladimir Putin previously hinted that Russia would complete development of an intermediate-range ballistic missile system ( IRBM) after Washington and Berlin have agreed to deploy it. US long-range missiles in Germany from 2026.
Singh said the new variant of the missile was considered “experimental” by the Pentagon: “This is the first time we have seen it used on the battlefield….” This is why we consider it experimental. »
U.S. and British sources said they believed the missile fired at Dnipro was an experimental intermediate-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile (IRBM), with a theoretical range of less than 5,500 km. That’s enough to reach Europe where it was filmed, in southwest Russia, but not the United States.
The Ukrainian Air Force initially said it was an ICBM missile.
Although the launch of an IRBM could send a less threatening signal, the incident could raise alarms and Moscow decided to warn Washington before the launch, according to US sources.
Will the Russian attack affect NATO?
Timothy Wright of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Russia’s development of new missiles could influence NATO countries’ decisions about which air defense systems to acquire and which offensive capabilities to pursue.
A new US ballistic missile defense base in northern Poland has already provoked angry reactions from Moscow. The US base in Redzikowo is part of a wider NATO missile shield and is designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
However, Putin said the launch of the new IRBM this Thursday was not a response to the Polish base, but to recent long-range Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with Western weapons.
After approval from President Joe Biden’s administration, Ukraine attacked Russia with U.S.-made ATACMS on Nov. 19, and with British Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made Himars on Nov. 21, Putin said .
What did Vladimir Putin say about the new missile?
The Russian president acknowledged in a televised address to the nation that Moscow had attacked a Ukrainian military facility with a new ballistic missile, saying it was called Oreshnik (the hazelnut).
He said its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy short- and medium-range missiles” and that Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.
Moscow said its target was a missile and defense company located in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where the space rocket and missile company Pivdenmash, known as Yuzhmash to Russians, is based. Russians.
Putin said Russia was developing short- and medium-range missiles in response to the United States’ production and subsequent deployment of medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and Asia.
“I think the United States made a mistake by unilaterally breaking the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and short-range missiles in 2019 under an absurd pretext,” the Russian president said, referring to the treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF).
The United States officially withdrew from the 1987 Treaty (INF) with Russia in 2019 after claiming that Moscow was violating the agreement, an accusation denied by the Kremlin.
