The Nov. 21 Russian strike by an Oreshnik hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian military-industrial target in Dnipropetrovsk should be seen as a warning to Germany and other NATO countries that have agreed to deploy U.S. nuclear-capable cruise missiles on their soil beginning in 2026, insisted Gilbert Doctorow, a founder of the American Committee for East-West Accord.
Discussing the Russian strike on Dnipropetovsk with an Oreshnik missile, Doctorow asserted that the missile did not just destroy a factory, but a Leopard tank repair facility operated by the German weapons company Rheinmetall, probably including German technicians. He called its destruction “the strongest message possible” to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to “forget about your country building arms manufacturing units in Ukraine.... Gone.” Doctorow added: “This is why we heard a change of song from Mr. Scholz, soon after the strike on Dnipro. Just remember that the Americans sweet-talked Scholz, or strong-armed Scholz more likely, into agreeing that in 2026, Germany will be providing bases for American Tomahawk cruise missiles, nuclear-armed, directed at Russia…. Germany would be used as a platform for a preemptive first strike, a decapitating strike against Russia as from 2026.
“I would say that Mr. Scholz and all the rest of us would be lucky to live to 2026 if they persist in the insane provocation and strikes against Russia that began with the ATACMS…. For these moves to be continued is to risk a Russian retaliation that will be not in Ukraine, but against one of the NATO countries. We can talk about which NATO country is rumored to be at the top of the Russian list. But this is the point that the rollout of the Oreshnik is two years ahead of the planned American deployment of Tomahawks in Europe. So for the next two years, Europe is totally exposed, as under the sword of the Russians.”
