(CLO) President Vladimir Putin said 100 drones and 90 missiles were launched into Ukraine in the past two days "in response to deep attacks" inside Russia, and announced that Kiev could be attacked with Oreshnik hypersonic missiles.
Mr Putin was speaking at a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit of former Soviet bloc states in the Kazakh capital Astana on Thursday, after Ukraine said Russian missiles targeted its power infrastructure.
He also mentioned Russia's use of Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles last week against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: TASS
Russia may use Oreshnik on a large scale
Speaking at the CSTO Summit, Mr. Putin announced that Russia has begun mass production of weapons capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that the Russian Defense Ministry is currently selecting more targets in Ukraine to attack with the new Oreshnik missile, including the capital Kiev.
He added that those targets could include “decision-making centers” in Kiev to respond to long-range Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western weapons. In the event of a widespread use of Oreshnik, the power of the strike “would be equivalent to a nuclear weapon,” he claimed.
Russia's massive air campaign comes as Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on multiple targets inside Russian territory, including using long-range missiles produced by the US and the UK.
A chemical warehouse caught fire south of Moscow, covering an area of 2,500 square meters on Monday. Earlier, on the night of November 24, Ukrainian forces were confirmed to have attacked the radar station of the S-400 system in Kursk.
Ukraine also carried out its first attack on an airport in Russia using US-funded ATACMS ballistic missiles on November 25. This was Khalino airport in Russia's Kursk region, about 100 km from the border with Ukraine.
Power outage across Ukraine
Ukraine's energy infrastructure is under "heavy attack" that has forced the national grid operator to issue emergency power cuts amid freezing temperatures, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using cluster bombs. He said Ukraine needed more Western air defense systems “right now” to protect against Russian attacks.
Russia and Ukraine are not among the 112 countries that signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 91 missiles and 97 drones, adding that 79 missiles and 35 drones were intercepted. Ukrainian officials said at least some of the weapons hit their targets.
Fighting between Russia and Ukraine has escalated dramatically in recent weeks. Photo: TASS
"Power facilities in some regions have been damaged," the national grid operator Ukrenergo said, adding that it had issued an emergency blackout nationwide.
Authorities in the Lviv and Kiev regions said key infrastructure sites had been attacked. According to Ukrenergo, power outages were reported in the Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro and Donetsk regions as temperatures across the country dropped to zero degrees Celsius.
The CEO of energy provider Yasno, Serhii Kovalenko, later said there had been an emergency power outage across the country due to the attacks. More than a million customers in western Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres from the frontline, were without power.
“As of now, 523,000 subscribers in the Lviv region are without electricity,” the director of the western Ukraine region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said on social media.
Regional officials said at least 280,000 more people were isolated in the western Rivne region and another 215,000 in Ukraine's northwestern Volyn region, which also borders Poland - a member of the European Union and NATO.
Bui Huy (according to TASS, Reuters)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/giao-tranh-du-doi-khap-ukraine-mat-dien-va-nga-co-the-tan-cong-kiev-bang-oreshnik-post323405.html
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