A day after Russia’s attack on Ukraine with what were clearly big, very fast and new intermediate-range missiles, which many outlets initially reported to be an ICBM, the Kremlin is touting that it launched a cutting-edge hypersonic missile for which there is no defensive intercept capability.

Russia says that Washington has now understood and been able to grasp Putin’s warnings and red lines more clearly following the missile strike a Ukrainian defense industry facility in Dnepropetrovsk Thursday morning. The new hypersonic weapon, dubbed ‘Oreshnik’ is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

“We have no doubt that the current administration in Washington has had the opportunity to familiarize itself with this announcement and understand it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Putin had said the West’s escalation, seen this week in authorizing Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia with US/UK-made weapons, makes Ukraine a “global” conflict.

He strongly hinted that this global aspect to the war means attacks on Western targets can’t be ruled out. The same day, the foreign ministry said a US missile base in Poland is a prime target.

Peskov further called Putin’s message following the hypersonic attack “comprehensive, clear and logical.” The Russian leader has authorized the new missile to enter mass production.

“The key message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries — which produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine and subsequently take part in carrying out strikes on Russian territory — cannot go unanswered,” Peskov continued.

On Friday Russian state media sources have begun publishing specs for the Oreshnik missile, claiming it flies at Mach 10, and can reach 5,500km in distance, or 3,400+ miles (as a medium-range weapon).

Russia’s missile command has also informed Putin that the projectile is capable of reaching any European target…

❗️‘Oreshnik’ IRBM is capable of reaching any European target – Russian missile forces chief pic.twitter.com/v50HHAafIc

— RT (@RT_com) November 22, 2024

“The unique feature of the Oreshnik missile system is that, firstly, it is a medium-range missile – it flies to a distance of 1,000 km to 5,500 km – and secondly, it is hypersonic, flying at a speed of Mach 10,” a retired Russian Army colonel and military analyst, identified as Viktor Litovkin, told Sputnik.

“The West does not have missiles that fly at such a speed or hypersonic missiles at all,” he continued. “Although the US has repeatedly boasted that it has such missiles, it has never demonstrated a missile flight. They appeared to show missiles that flew at a supersonic speed of 5.5 times the speed of sound or Mach 5.5. However, hypersonic speed begins at Mach 6-7.”

Independent geopolitical site Moon of Alabama agrees, and calls it a huge game-changer [emphasis ZH]:

Launched from Russia the missile can reach any target in Europe in less than 20 minutes. On reentry into the atmosphere the warheads of the missile reach hypersonic speeds of 3-4 kilometer per second. There is no air defense system in the world that could stop them.

The surprising and successful demonstration of such an enormous capability is a wake-up call for European strategists.

Lulled in by neoconservative talk of western supremacy and presumed Russian inabilities the Europeans were eager to connect their fate to a proxy war against Russia. Having been defeated in the fight for the commodities of the Donbas region they have pushed for extending the reach of their weapons into Russia.

The results are now in. Europe is defenseless against new Russian weapons which can reach every political and industrial center of Europe with devastating power and with just minutes of notice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Thursday’s strike against a weapons factory in Dnepropetrovsk was an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), dubbed Oreshnik (‘Hazel’). Oreshnik flies at Mach 10 and carries multiple warheads, making it impervious to air defenses. pic.twitter.com/awK9at6lwh

— RT (@RT_com) November 22, 2024