Ukraine shows fragments of new Russian missile after ‘Oreshnik’ strike

UNDISCLOSED (Ukraine): Ukraine on Sunday showed journalists fragments of the Russian missile used to strike the city of Dnipro last week, after Moscow said it had tested its new Oreshnik ballistic missile.

Russia on Thursday carried out a strike on the city which President Vladimir Putin said was a test of its new Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

Ukraine’s SBU security service displayed metal fragments, ranging from bulky to tiny, on fake grass in front of camouflage netting at an undisclosed location Sunday, AFP journalists saw.

The SBU did not name the missile used but said it was a type they had not seen before.

Oleg, one of its investigators, told journalists that “this is the first time the debris of such a missile has been found on the territory of Ukraine.

“This item had not been documented by security investigators before,” he added.

Oleg said that investigators are examining the fragments and will later “provide answers” on the characteristics of the missile.

He said that the missile was ballistic and had caused damage to civilian and “other infrastructure” in Dnipro.

In a televised address Thursday, Putin said Russia used the IRBM in response to Ukraine’s firing US ATACMS and UK Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, after the Kyiv allies lifted a ban on it using long-range weaponry to fire into Russia.

Putin said the missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by air defences.

The president said it hit a defence industry production facility in Dnipro “which still produces missile equipment and other weapons”.

A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman was heard answering a phone call about a strike on Yuzhmash during a press briefing. Yuzhmash is the Russian name of an aerospace manufacturer in Dnipro now called Pivdenmash. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has confirmed whether this was the target.

Putin has promised more combat testing of the Oreshnik missile and said it will go into serial production.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the strike “the latest bout of Russian madness” and appealed for updated air-defence systems to meet the new threat.

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence has said Kyiv knew several prototypes of the missile had been produced before it was fired.