Putin pledges to start mass production of “unstoppable” ballistic missiles
- 23 November, 09:17
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will speed up the production of “unstoppable” hypersonic ballistic missiles amid what he described as NATO’s aggressive actions against his country. Addressing a defence ministry meeting on Thursday, Putin said Russia has successfully conducted combat tests of the 'Oreshnik' hypersonic missile system. By Nato’s “aggressive actions” Putin’s refers to the US and UK’s lifting limit for Ukraine’s use of ATACMS and Storm Shadow long-range missiles.
"In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on 21 November of this year, the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine,” the Russian leader said.
Putin contested Washington’s claims that Russia possessed only a “handful” of the high-speed ballistic missiles, saying that the military had enough to continue to test them in “combat conditions”.
"In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested, among other things. In this case, with a ballistic missile in a nuclear-free hypersonic equipment," he went on saying.
Responding to Putin’s remarks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy explained that Putin was “testing the West’s support of Ukraine”. He urged the Western allies to respond to Putin, stressing that “a lack of tough reactions to Russia’s actions sends a message that such behavior is acceptable. This is what Putin is doing."
Earlier, Russian envoy to the UK, Andrey Kelin, warned that this country was directly “involved” in the wary, claiming that Kyiv’s use of British Storm Shadow missiles could not have happened with UK’s involvement.
