MOSCOW, Russia — Russia is selecting targets in Ukraine that could include “decision-making centers” in Kyiv in response to Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian territory with Western weapons, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, November 28.
Russian attacks have not so far struck government buildings in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv is heavily protected by air defenses, but Putin says Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which it fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted.
“Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on November 21,” Putin told a meeting of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries in Kazakhstan.
“At present, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defense and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centers in Kyiv,” he said.
Russia says Ukraine fired US ATACMS ballistic missiles into western Russia for the first time on November 19, prompting it to respond two days later by firing the Oreshnik, a new intermediate-range missile, at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Since then, Russia says Ukraine fired more ATACMS at its Kursk region on November 23 and November 25.
Putin said Russia’s production of advanced missile systems exceeds that of the NATO military alliance by 10 times, and that Moscow planned to ramp up production further.
– Rappler.com