Russia has a stock of powerful new missiles “ready to be used,” President Vladimir Putin has said, a day after his country fired a new ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
In an unscheduled TV address, the Russian leader said the Oreshnik missile could not be intercepted and promised to carry out more tests, including in “combat conditions.”
Russia’s use of the Oreshnik capped a week of escalation in the war that also saw Ukraine fire US and British missiles into Russia for the first time.
In Friday's address Putin said the Oreshnik hypersonic missiles flew at 10 times the speed of sound and ordered them to be put into production. He had earlier said that use of the missile was a response to Ukraine's use of Storm Shadow and Atacms missiles.
Thursday's strike on Dnipro was described as unusual by eyewitnesses and triggered explosions which went on for three hours.
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