The new missile Russia is using in Ukraine and why it has NATO on edge

Russia launched a volley of missiles towards the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro early Thursday morning, together with a brand new sort of ballistic missile that has North Atlantic Treaty Group members on edge. 

The highly effective next-level, multiple-warhead battlefield weapon, which has been analyzed by the Pentagon, has prompted NATO to carry an emergency summit on Tuesday. Among the many cruise missiles intercepted within the assault was what the Protection Division has recognized as a variant of the RS-26, an “experimental” intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), a reconfigured Russian intercontinental ballistic missile, in response to a U.S. official. 

The missile aimed toward Dnipro in central Ukraine targeted on one space, carrying six warheads about 750 miles from the launch location, in retaliation for Ukraine’s assault earlier within the week on a army facility in Russia. Ukraine is bracing for extra volleys. 

Whereas publicly, U.S. officers say Russia possible possesses solely a handful of those experimental missiles, sources say these ballistic missiles pose a novel menace. They’re able to reaching 3,000 miles, and carrying a multiple-payload system. These techniques are designed to hold and launch a number of warheads and to launch them at completely different speeds and completely different instructions, doubtlessly over an space of greater than 1,000 miles. They’re additionally able to carrying nuclear warheads. Heightening U.S. and NATO considerations additional, it is the primary time such a system has been used, and far nonetheless stays unknown about their utilization. 

“What if he decides to focus on Lviv subsequent,” a U.S. official stated, referencing a metropolis in Western Ukraine close to the border with Poland. 

The techniques’ capabilities problem even essentially the most superior of Ukraine’s air protection techniques, because the war-weary nation tries to defend itself from Russia greater than 2.5 years after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. 

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh stated Russian officers warned the U.S. of the launch by way of nuclear threat discount channels. That helped be sure that it wasn’t misidentified as an intercontinental ballistic missile and due to this fact a doable nuclear menace.

Whereas Russia already has enough weapons in its arsenal to strike NATO companions, Poland is especially unnerved by these new developments. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated there’s a “critical and actual” menace of worldwide warfare. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as it a “clear and extreme escalation” by Russia. Zelenskyy accused Putin of utilizing Ukraine as a “testing floor.” 

President Biden’s latest resolution to permit Ukraine to fireside U.S.-made and provided missiles deeper into Russia, a serious coverage shift, has prompted livid responses from Moscow. 

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