Their comments appeared to back up the Kremlin’s own description of the weapon’s use last Thursday as a warning to the West after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to fire its missiles into Russia.
Both sources provided more details about the new weapon as Western experts try to learn more about what US officials said was an experimental medium-range missile.
Intermediate-range ballistic missiles are typically designed for long-range nuclear strikes on targets thousands of kilometers away.
One of the sources said the missile was carrying fake warheads and described the damage as “relatively minor”.
A second source said: “In this case (the missile) was unexploded… There were no explosions as we expected. There was something, but it wasn’t a huge explosion.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile was a successful test and that it hit its target, a missile and defense company in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Since the Russian invasion in 2022 in February, Ukraine rarely discloses information about airstrikes against military facilities.
According to Putin, Russia will continue to test the Oreshnik for combat purposes and that it has stocks ready for use. Meanwhile, Kyiv has said that Ukraine is already working on developing air systems to counter this weapon.
U.S. officials have said Russia probably has only a few of these missiles, which Western experts say appear to have been derived from the RS-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Source: www.15min.lt
