Ukraine does not believe in the power of Oreshnik, so Russia will use it again

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.

Photo: Dmitry Plotnikov Pravda.Ru by Neuronetwork

Missile strike

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.

Russia makes powerful geopolitical move

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.

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Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko (née Tyutina; born 7 April 1949) is a Russian politician and diplomat serving as a Senator from Saint Petersburg and the Chairwoman of the Federation Council since 2011. Previously she was Governor of Saint Petersburg from 2003 to 2011. Born in the Ukrainian SSR, Matviyenko began her political career in the 1980s in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and was the First Secretary of the Krasnogvardeysky District Communist Party of the city from 1984 to 1986. In the 1990s, Matviyenko served as the Russian Ambassador to Malta (1991–1995), and to Greece (1997–1998). From 1998 to 2003, Matviyenko was Deputy Prime Minister for Welfare, and briefly the Presidential Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District in 2003. By that time, Matviyenko was firmly allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an alliance which secured her a victory in the gubernatorial elections in Saint Petersburg, Putin's native city.