Russia Has Used Its Hypersonic Oreshnik Missile for the First Time. What Are Its Capabilities?

The silent black-and-white surveillance camera video of the Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro was brief but chilling: Six huge fireballs pierced the darkness and slammed into the ground at astonishing speed.

Within hours of the Nov. 21 attack on the military facility, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the rare step of speaking on national TV to boast about the new, hypersonic missile. He warned the West that its next use could be against Ukraine’s NATO allies who allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.

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The use of the Oreshnik was an expression of Moscow’s anger at the use of longer-range Western missiles and a signal to Ukraine and President-elect Donald Trump that Russia was going to pursue its goals, regardless of the support for Kyiv, said James J. Townsend, senior fellow at the Center for New American Security.

“This is a very powerful message being sent,” Townsend said. “It’s showing Trump how serious Russia looks on what the Biden administration has been doing and how seriously they look on and how angry they are about this type of assistance.”

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