US intelligence agencies have estimated that Russia could again target Ukraine with a deadly new intermediate-range ballistic missile "in the coming days", a US official said on Wednesday.
The official, who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity, said that America considers the use of the experimental rocket "Oreshnik" to be more of an attempt at intimidation than something that will significantly change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine, reports AP.
Russia, the official said, has only a few missiles that carry smaller warheads than other missiles Russia has regularly fired at Ukraine.
Russia fired a new missile for the first time on November 21, in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Footage of the impact, from surveillance cameras, shows the missile hitting the ground at an astonishing speed.
A few hours after the attack on a military facility in Dnieper, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on national television about a new hypersonic missile. He has warned the West that it could be used against NATO ally Ukraine, which allows Kiev to use longer-range Western missiles to attack targets deep inside Russian territory.
Two days before the attack, Putin signed an amended version of Russia's nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. The doctrine now envisages a potential Russian nuclear response in the event of a conventional attack on Russia by any country backed by a nuclear power.
On the eve of the attack on the Dnieper, US President Joe Biden agreed to ease restrictions on Ukraine's use of longer-range US weapons to attack targets in Russia. "We believe we have the right to use our weapons against the military facilities of countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities," Putin said after the attack.
The Pentagon announced that the "Oreshnik" is an experimental type of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), based on the Russian RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Medium-range missiles can fly from 500 to 5.500 kilometers. They are banned by the Soviet-era agreement, from which Washington and Moscow withdrew in 2019.
Russia: Ukraine fired American missiles at Russian Taganrog
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Ukraine had fired six US ATACMS missiles at a military airport in the southern Russian city of Taganrog. Russian officials announced retaliation for the attack.
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The ministry's announcement states that all six missiles were shot down or intercepted, but that shrapnel injured some soldiers, reports Reuters.
"There was no damage, two buildings at the airport and three military vehicles, as well as civilian cars in the parking lot, were slightly damaged (by shrapnel)," the statement said.
"This attack by Western long-range weapons will not go unanswered and adequate measures will be taken," the Russian ministry warned.
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