US warns Russia may fire another hypersonic missile at Ukraine

Russia may fire another of its hypersonic ballistic missile at Ukraine ‘in days,’ the United States warned on Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin has a handful of the experimental missiles, known as Oreshnik, or hazel tree. He claims the missile is impossible to intercept and that it has destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, even when fitted with a conventional warhead.

It’s capable of destroying underground bunkers ‘three, four or more floors down,’ Putin boasted last month, threatening to use it against the government district in Kyiv . But the Oreshnik, an experimental missile, is seen by American officials more as an attempt at intimidation than a game-changer.

‘We assess that the Oreshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather just another attempt by Russia to terrorize Ukraine, which will fail,’ an official told Reuters. The Russian-Ukraine war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow’s forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict.

Both Moscow and Kyiv are attempting to cement their advantage in the war before Donald Trump takes office. Trump has insisted Russia and Ukraine immediately reach a ceasefire and said Ukraine should likely prepare to receive less U.S. military aid.

‘Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,’ Trump wrote on social media last weekend, referring to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin has wielded his new weapon before. Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21.

That was just days after President Joe Biden agreed to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American made longer-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory Putin said it was a response to Ukraine’s first use of U.S. ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission. Surveillance camera video of the strike showed huge fireballs piercing the darkness and slammed into the ground at astonishing speed.

Putin had previously warned Russia may use the Oreshnik again, including to hit ‘decision-making centers’ in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range Western weapons. The Pentagon said the Oreshnik is an experimental type of intermediate-range ballistic missile, or IRBM, based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. The November attack marked the first time such a weapon was used in combat.

But Russian state media brags about Oreshnik, claiming one missile will take just 11 minutes to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the missile had six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. Its payload of independently targetable warheads, like a cluster of hazelnuts growing on a tree, could be the inspiration for the missile’s name.

Biden’s administration continues to shore up Ukraine in its final days in office. The administration announced a $988 million long-term aid package last weekend. That funding is on top of an additional $725 million in U.S. military assistance, including counter-drone systems and HIMARS munitions, announced early last week that would be drawn from the Pentagon’s stockpiles to more quickly get to the front lines. The U.S. has provided Ukraine with more than $62 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

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