Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently provided insight into the use of the Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile system in the Ukrainian theatre during his press conference in St. Petersburg on Friday, reported Military Watch Magazine. “We have not had a single combat use of the Oreshnik in the full sense of the word on Ukrainian territory,” he observed, noting that Russia has “tested similar systems at training grounds, but not the Oreshnik.” “Last time, to be completely honest—I’ll reveal to you a big military state secret—we just hit where it was convenient for us to see the results,” Putin added, noting that Russian drones later flew in to observe dispersal and impact effects. “It’s important for us to make decisions in the future on the full-scale use of Oreshnik against designated targets, including in urban areas,” he elaborated.
Military Watch surmised that Putin’s statement implies that the Oreshnik could be used on a greater scale and with much greater effect in future, likely in the Ukrainian theater. Nevertheless, the cost effectiveness of using the system against Ukrainian targets remains in question, with shorter ranged systems such as the Iskander-M capable of achieving comparable results at far lower costs. While prior uses in the Ukrainian theatre have been useful as shows of force and for testing purposes, the missiles are likely to be conserved for potential hostilities with NATO. Multiple Russian government sources have from April issued explicit warnings regarding European production and supplies of unmanned attack aircraft to Ukraine, in several cases indicating that the facilities involved could become targets, despite these being on NATO territory.
