Russia launches its first ever intercontinental missile strike. The target was the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Everything you need to know about the strike, the missile used by the Russians, and why Putin took this step, is in this article

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On the night of 21 November, powerful explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Later, the Ukrainian Air Force announced that the russian army had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile at the city. This is the first time such a weapon has ever been used for combat purposes.

What is known about the strike?

The Air Force has not yet officially confirmed that the RS-26 Rubezh was used in Ukraine. However, monitoring experts say that the strike was probably carried out by this missile.

According to Defence Express, the кussian missile travelled only 800 km to hit the Dnipro River from a test site in Astrakhan Oblast, although it is designed to deliver a nuclear strike at a distance of thousands of km.

The Rubezh missile, like other missiles of this class, consists of three stages. The first stage launches the missile into a rarefied atmosphere, after which the next two stages begin to operate.

Since this missile acts as a carrier of nuclear weapons, it only means that russia has demonstrated the possibility of a nuclear strike.

It should be noted that the announcement of such launches is a prerequisite for preventing the triggering of the missile warning system and the launch of missiles in response to a nuclear counterattack scenario. However, it is still unclear whether moscow has warned the United States of its launch.

According to analysts, it is quite possible that the launched russian ballistic missile was equipped with warhead simulators.

What do you need to know about the missile itself?

It is believed that the RS-26 Rubezh is based on two Topol-M stages. The same approach was used for the well-known medium-range missile RSD-10 Pioneer, which used stages from Temp-2S, the predecessor of Topol.

At the same time, the exact characteristics of the RS-26 Rubezh are still unknown. Among the most likely ones are a launch weight of 40-50 tonnes, a range of up to 6000 km, and up to 6 separate warheads with a capacity of 0.3 Mt each, similar to those used in the RS-24 Yars. It is also believed that it can be equipped with a hypersonic Avangard-type planning unit.

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Putin recognises strike on Ukraine as latest development of Oreshnik

On the evening of 21 November, the russian dictator made a video address in which he admitted that russia had struck Dnipro with a ballistic missile at night, but that it was of medium range, according to him. It is worth noting that the medium-range scale for missiles ends at 5,500 kilometres.

Putin claimed that the strike was carried out by the latest development, called Oreshnik. The strike was demonstrative and at the same time test-oriented.

At the same time, the dictator claims that in the future, russia may use these weapons again, but allegedly with a prior warning to civilians.

The strike, according to the dictator, was in response to Western countries' permission to use their Armed Forces missiles on russian territory. Moreover, putin said that russia could retaliate with force against these countries as well.

It should be added that there is absolutely no information about such missiles in the public domain. Neither about their characteristics, nor about their tests, nor about plans for their creation. It is possible that ‘Oreshnik’ is the name in the working documentation of the same RS-26 ‘Rubezh’ mentioned above. The russian federation often uses double names (the X-101 cruise missile is referred to as ‘Product 504’).

Ukraine knew about the impending strike

According to CNN, the United States warned Ukraine in advance of an experimental missile attack by russia.

According to an unnamed US official, Ukraine has withstood ‘countless attacks’ by russians, including missiles with ‘much larger warheads’ than the experimental ballistic missile.

We remind you! Yesterday, a number of countries decided to close their embassies in Ukraine. The reason is the threat of a major air attack from russia.

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