©picture alliance / Anadolu | Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened further attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, “in response to attacks on Russia.” This would involve the use of the Oreshnik missile, a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile.
Take air raid alerts seriously
The Ukrainian Air Force is aware of the situation and is bracing for a possible Russian attack. In a Telegram message on Friday morning, the military warned that there is a high probability that Russia will launch a medium-range ballistic missile within 24 hours from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region of Russia. “It is absolutely essential to take any air raid siren seriously,” the military urges the population. President Volodymyr Zelensky also reminded Ukrainians to take this message seriously in the coming days and to actually take shelter in the event of an air raid siren.
Shortly before midnight on Thursday evening, the Ukrainian military had already issued a nationwide ballistic missile alert that lasted nearly 15 minutes, but no actual launch took place at that time.
Russia’s threatening announcement follows a statement by Putin, who claimed that “Ukraine’s attacks are damaging the Russian economy, but that everything is recovering quickly.”
The feared Oreshnik missile
The Oreshnik, or “Hazel” in Russian, is a Russian hypersonic medium-range missile capable of reaching speeds of Mach 10–11—ten to eleven times the speed of sound. It has a range of up to 5,000 kilometers, putting all of Europe within its reach. According to experts, the missile cannot be intercepted by Ukrainian air defense systems.
Small-scale production
The Russian military has deployed the experimental missile at least three times since 2024 against Ukrainian targets: Dnipro, Lviv, and Bila Tserkva near Kyiv. However, during those “demonstrative” attacks, the missile did not carry actual warheads. Putin later claimed that the target near Bila Tserkva was a “barn” and that he wanted to observe “how the blocks fall.”
Russian state media portray the Oreshnik as a revolutionary weapon capable of inflicting massive damage. Although Moscow may have begun limited series production, the number of Oreshnik missiles available to Russian forces is believed to be small.
©picture alliance / Anadolu | Kremlin