November 30, 2024
On November 28, 2024 President Vladimir Putin answered media questions following his state visit to Kazakhstan and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Summit.
He pointed out that the decision of some NATO members to launch strikes at Russian territory using long-range high-precision weapons produced in the West would mean direct involvement of Western countries in the armed conflict, as it is simply impossible to deploy this type of weapons without directly involving the military personnel and the military specialists from the respective NATO countries. The President stressed that Russia would certainly respond to such acts of aggression against the Russian Federation. The timing, methods, and weapons employed will be determined by the General Staff of the MoD.
He noted that on November 28 in response to employment of the U.S. and the UK missiles strikes Russia fired 90 missiles and 100 unmanned strike vehicles against Ukrainian territory. Seventeen critical military, military-industrial, and auxiliary facilities that support the Ukrainian Armed Forces were struck.
In his words, Russia will not rule out the combat employment of Oreshnik hypersonic MRBM or Medium-Range Ballistic Missile on military-industrial facilities or command centers in Ukraine, including those located in Kiev. In so doing, Russia took in account that the Ukrainian authorities continue their attempts to target Russian critical assets, including those in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Putin disclosed a number of the descriptive characteristics of the newly-developed missile.
He compared the use of several Oreshnik MRBMs in a single strike with the use of nuclear weapons, albeit they are not nuclear-tipped. A kinetic impact is a formidable force, akin to a meteorite impact. During an impact with any target Oreshnik’s strike elements are heated to a temperature of 4,000 degrees Celsius. Anything located in the strike center is obliterated into elemental particles, reduced to dust. Oreshnik can destroy highly fortified targets buried deep underground at a depth of three-four, possibly even more, floors below the surface. More power can be added to amplify the devastating effect of the missile.
Oreshnik cannot be intercepted by any NATO missile defense system.
Putin announced at the CSTO Summit that Russia produces significantly more various missiles than the entire NATO bloc can: “Russia has 10 times more of different missiles than the combined output of all NATO countries. Next year, we will increase the production by another 25 to 30 percent”.
Russian President warned that Moscow “would use all weapons” Russia has if Ukraine gets nuclear weapons. “We will not let this happen”, he firmly stated. If Kiev creates a “dirty nuclear bomb” by scrambling up nuclear power plants’ waste, he continued, Russian response will be absolutely adequate to the threats to Russia.
Putin said that Moscow’s stance regarding the Ukraine settlement has not changed after the emergence of more and more new weapon systems. Russia is still ready for a negotiation process, and on the terms contained in his address to the Foreign Ministry leadership in Moscow last June.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
On April 14, 2014 NATO urged Ukrainian president a.i. Turchinov to unleash an all-out war against Donbass, and incited Zelensky to do the same on February 17, 2022 against Donbass, and later against Russia. In his turn Zelensky urged NATO to proliferate an all-out war against Russia. It is a vicious circle pushing the globe into nuclear abyss.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
