The Russian military launched a modern medium-range hypersonic missile at a Ukrainian target - RT quoted President Vladimir Putin as saying in a speech to the public on November 21.
As part of a "combat experiment" described by Mr. Putin, the Oreshnik (Hazel) hypersonic missile successfully attacked a military industrial facility in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro) of Ukraine.
The airstrike was in response to Ukrainian attacks on military facilities located in internationally recognized Russian territory. President Putin said that Kiev's forces carried out attacks on Russia on November 18 and 20, using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS missile systems as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles.
The president also said he would publicly announce any future strikes on Ukrainian targets using the Oreshnik hypersonic missile "for humanitarian reasons" to keep civilians out of the potentially dangerous area. He added that the announcements would not affect the effectiveness of the attacks.
President Putin said the ballistic missile moved at speeds of 2.5-3km/s (9,000-10,800km/h), 10 times faster than the speed of sound and could not be countered by any existing air defense system.
Previously, international media reported that Kiev had received approval from Washington and London to use Western-made long-range systems to strike deep into Russia.
One of the strikes caused a number of casualties at a Russian command center in Kursk Oblast, but did not disrupt the center's operations. President Putin noted that such developments have significantly changed the nature of the Ukrainian conflict, turning it into a more global conflict.
According to Mr. Putin, Russia fires the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile with conventional warheads, not nuclear warheads. The missile strikes "one of the largest industrial complexes, which has been famous since the Soviet era and still produces missiles and other weapons". According to RT, Mr. Putin is referring to Yuzhmash - a state-owned aerospace plant owned by Ukraine, inherited from the Soviet Union.
On November 21, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that the city of Dnepropetrovsk had been attacked by Russian surface-to-surface missiles and many other weapons. The Ukrainian military said Moscow used "a transcontinental ballistic missile" in the attack - a statement that even Washington opposed.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attack also involved a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile and 7 Kh-101 cruise missiles. The Ukrainian air defense force announced that it had shot down 6 cruise missiles. The Ukrainian military also said it had no information about the casualties or damage caused by the attack at the time of the announcement.
The combat experiment was conducted in response to the aggressive actions of NATO member states against Russia, President Putin said in a speech. Moscow voluntarily pledged not to unilaterally deploy intermediate-range missiles anywhere as long as similar US weapons were not deployed to any region of the world, the president said.
The Russian leader stressed that the development of such systems was a reaction to Washington's plan to produce and deploy similar systems to Europe and Asia-Pacific, and pointed to Washington's unilateral decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019.
Moscow will also continue its "combat testing" with its latest missile system, Putin warned, adding that it has the right to target military facilities of countries that allow its use of weapons against Russia.
However, President Vladimir Putin affirmed that Russia is still ready to resolve all disagreements peacefully.
