The Russian Armed Forces may use the Oreshnik missile again after Ukraine shelled the Kursk region of Russia with long-range ATACMS missiles, Andrey Koshkin, military expert, head of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics believes.
Over the past few days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine has used long-range weapons twice to strike the Kursk region of Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry later announced that it was preparing a response to those attacks.
Andrey Koshkin believes that the Russian forces may strike energy and military infrastructure facilities, as well as logistics centers that provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons and equipment.
"The main objective of those strikes will be to reduce the combat potential of the Ukrainian army," Koshkin told Info 24. I do not rule out that in the course of retaliatory actions the Russian army may use the Oreshnik missile again, a conventional version of it," Koshkin said.
The Russian Armed Forces may also use cruise and ballistic missiles in combination with attack UAVs, he added.
Interestingly, though, some still believe that Russia's Oreshnik attack on Ukraine was not powerful at all. According to two senior officials in the Ukrainian government, the new Russian ballistic missile that struck Dnepropetrovsk had warheads without explosives.
The missile carried dummy warheads. "There were no explosions as we expected. There was something, but not very big," one of the officials said, Reuters reports.
On November 26, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine launched five ATACMS missiles to strike a Russian military facility in the village of Lotarevka in the Kursk region. The attack was carried out on November 23. Three missiles were intercepted. Ukraine carried out another strike using ATACMS missiles on November 25 targeting the Kursk-Vostochny airfield.
The Defense Ministry warned of impending retaliatory actions.
On November 26, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said that the United States had authorized Kyiv to use American long-range ATACMS missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory.
Speaker of Russia's Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said that Russia's launch of the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile was a powerful act of geopolitics.
In her opinion, Russia has a clear understanding that the signal that Vladimir Putin thus sent was received and heard.
"I believe that the address of the President of the Russian Federation, together with the successful demonstration of our Russian hypersonic weapons, was a powerful act of modern geopolitics," she said at a meeting of the upper house of the Russian parliament.
On November 21, during his address to the nation, President Putin said that the Russian military used the latest medium-range missile system, the Oreshnik, to strike Ukraine.