The Oreshnik missile launched on Tuesday apparently took off from Russia’s Kapustin Yar rocket base, about 800 kilometers from Dnipro, a long way from the intense fighting.
This is the first time an IRBM has been used in combat. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, ratified by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1988, banned ground-launched IRBMs. The United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019 under the first Trump administration, citing non-compliance by Russia. At the time, US officials noted that China, which was not a signatory to the treaty, possessed more than 1,000 IRBMs in its arsenal.
Putin said that Western air defenses are not capable of destroying the Oreshnik missile in flight, although this claim cannot be verified. He said Russia would warn Ukraine before similar missile attacks in the future to allow civilians to escape dangerous areas.
Oreshnik missiles hit their targets at speeds of up to Mach 10, or 2.5 to 3 kilometers per second, Putin said. “Existing air defense systems around the world, including those being developed by the United States in Europe, cannot intercept such missiles.”
A world war?
In perhaps the most chilling part of his comments, Putin said the conflict in Ukraine is “taking on global dimensions” and said Russia has the right to use missiles against Western countries that supply weapons to Ukraine for use against Russian targets.
“In case of escalation, we will respond decisively and in the same way,” Putin said. “I advise the ruling elites of those countries that plan to use their military forces against Russia to seriously consider this.”
The change in nuclear doctrine authorized by Putin earlier this week also lowers the threshold for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons to counter a conventional attack that threatens Russian “territorial integrity.”
This seems to have already happened. Ukraine launched an offensive in Russia’s Kursk region in August, taking control of more than 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory. Russian forces, assisted by North Korean troops, are carrying out a counteroffensive to try to retake the territory.
Singh called Russia’s invitation to North Korean troops “escalation” and said Putin could “choose to end this war today.”
U.S. officials say Russian forces are suffering about 1,200 deaths or injuries per day in the war. In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence sources estimated that one million Ukrainians and Russians had been killed or wounded in the war.
The UN Human Rights Office most recently reported that 11,973 civilians have been killed, including 622 children, since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.
“We warned Russia in 2022 not to do this, and they did it anyway, so there are consequences to that,” Singh said. “But we don’t want this to become a broader regional conflict. “We are not seeking war with Russia.”
This story originally appeared on Ars Technique.