Russia has given its response to Ukrainian use of ATACMs and Storm Shadow missiles against Russian territory. Press reports emerged overnight, saying that Russia had launched an ICBM at Dnepropetrovsk (the Ukrainians call it Dnipro) in central Ukraine. The Ukrainian air forces confirmed the attack, which also included various other missile types targeting critical infrastructure, reported the Kyiv Post. “Between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m. on Nov. 21, Russian troops attacked the city of Dnipro, hitting enterprises and critical infrastructure,” the air force stated. “The assault included an ICBM launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region, a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missile fired from a MiG-31K jet in the Tambov region, and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles launched by Tu-95MS bombers near the Volgograd region.” The air force claimed that air defenses shot down six of the seven Kh-101s.
Videos circulating on social media show six groups of six projectiles each hitting the ground one after the other, suggesting a new type of heavy cluster weapon.
As for what type of missile the Russians employed, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter initially reported an assessment which identified the Russian missile as a conventionally armed version of the RS-26 Rubezh, a mobile ICBM that the Russians stopped producing in 2017 because of ambiguities about its range with respect to the INF Treaty, which was still in effect at that time.
Several hours later, Ritter offered a correction, in which he reported that the missile was not an RS-26 but rather a previously unknown medium-range missile called the Oreshnik (Hazel), subsequently identified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the missile used in the attack on Dnepropetrovsk. Ritter pointed out that a medium-range missile is generally characterized as having a range of between 1,000 and 3,000 km, while the distance from the launch site at Kapustin Yar in the Astrakhan region to Dnipro is around 800 km.
Ritter also noted, however, that the Ukrainian government had reported that an RS-26 had been observed at Kapustin Yar prior to the launch, implying that they had access to satellite imagery. This may be what was behind the closure of the U.S. and other embassies in Kiev on Nov. 20. “As such, one can speculate that the Oreshnik physically resembles the RS-26, meaning that it uses a six-axle mobile launcher and is fired from a launch canister mounted on the launcher.”
