Politics Russia threatens further missile attacks

Following the first attack by a new medium-range missile, Russia is threatening further strikes against Ukraine and its Western supporters.

"We believe we have the right to use our weapons against military objects of countries that allow their weapons to be used against objects in our country," said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will act decisively in a mirror image."

He spoke of a reaction to the fact that the USA and other countries had allowed Ukraine to use extensive weapons against Russian territory. "We have repeatedly emphasized that the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has taken on elements of a global character," said Putin. According to him, Russia had fired a newly developed medium-range missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning. Six warheads hit the city, although Putin said they were not nuclear warheads. Dnipro is the site of the former Soviet and now Ukrainian missile construction and armaments company Yuzhmash.

USA considers changing its nuclear strategy

Just a few days after the change in Russia's nuclear strategy, the US Department of Defense is holding out the prospect of possible changes to the American nuclear weapons strategy. The responsible Deputy Secretary of Defense, Richard Johnson, referred among other things to the improved nuclear capabilities of China and Russia. In order to ensure effective nuclear deterrence, an adjustment to the nuclear strategy, which was last updated in 2022, may be necessary, he said during an appearance in Washington.

Russia had only recently changed its nuclear doctrine. The new version states that Moscow considers aggression by a state that does not have nuclear weapons itself, but is supported by nuclear powers, to be a joint attack on Russia.

The Pentagon also sees risks beyond Russia and China. Several countries are increasing and modernizing their nuclear arsenals, said Johnson. At the same time, nuclear weapons are playing a greater role in the security strategy of these states.

USA speaks of an attempt at intimidation

The Russian attack on Dnipro was primarily intended to intimidate Ukraine and its supporters and attract public attention, said a representative of the US government. Moscow probably only has a handful of these experimental missiles. Ukraine had already survived attacks by missiles with much larger explosive charges. The USA had recently informed Kiev and its allies about the possible use of the new missile. Moscow, in turn, had informed the USA shortly before the launch, said Sabrina Singh, deputy spokesperson for the US Department of Defense. The "nuclear risk reduction channels" between Washington and Moscow had been used for this purpose.

Friday night, the 1003rd day of the Russian war of aggression, began with Russian drone strikes on parts of Ukraine, according to monitoring channels. Ukrainian air defense captured several swarms of drones near Kharkiv and Sumy in the east of the country. Russian authorities, for their part, reported Ukrainian combat drones over the Bryansk and Tula regions. Neither of the warring parties provided any information about the possible effects of the drone flights.

The defenders remained under pressure in the ground battles in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military blog DeepState reported that Russian troops had captured the village of Dalne near the besieged town of Kurakhove.

Selensky demands reaction from the world

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a decisive response from the international community to the Russian attack. "This is a clear and serious escalation of the scale and brutality of this war, a cynical violation of the UN Charter by Russia," Selensky wrote on social networks. Putin "doesn't care what China, Brazil, the European countries, America and all other countries in the world demand."

According to reports, Ukraine has fired US-made ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at military targets in Russia in recent days. Selensky explained that this was covered by international law as a defense against the Russian war of aggression. "Our right to self-defense is the same as that of any other nation."

The United Nations spoke of a "worrying development". "All this is going in the wrong direction. What we want to see is all parties taking urgent steps to de-escalate the situation," said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in New York.

Guesswork over new medium-range missile

The characteristics of the new Russian medium-range missile remained a matter of guesswork. The Ukrainian military had initially assumed that it was an intercontinental missile. Putin called the projectile Oreshnik (translated: nut bush). He claimed that it operated at hypersonic speed and could not be intercepted. However, experts see the use of several warheads in Dnipro as an indication that the missile can also be equipped with nuclear weapons. The Pentagon assumes that the medium-range ballistic missile is based on the model of the Russian RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile.

The development of the missile is also a reaction to the fact that the USA has terminated the INF Treaty banning land-based medium-range nuclear missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 kilometers, said Putin. The USA wanted to station such missiles in Europe and the Pacific. Washington actually withdrew from the treaty in 2019. The reason for this was the suspicion that Moscow had developed missiles and cruise missiles with the prohibited ranges.

SDA