Russia escalates with intercontinental missile in Ukraine attack
In the Thursday attack on Ukraine, Russia used, among other weapons, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from the Russian Astrakhan region, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Such a missile can carry nuclear warheads and has a range of up to 6,000 kilometres.
During the morning attack, a powerful long-range weapon capable of striking targets thousands of kilometers away and carrying nuclear warheads — was fired from Astrakhan in southern Russia," reported the Air Force command headquartered in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian side did not disclose what type of ballistic missile the Russians fired or if it hit its target. It is only known that the morning's large-scale missile strike was aimed at the city of Dnipro in the southeastern part of the country.
The day before, on Wednesday, the Ukrainian portal Defence Express, referring to the danger of Russians using an intercontinental ballistic missile, analyzed the capabilities of the RS-26 Rubezh missile.
The RS-26 Rubezh mobile ground-based strategic missile system belongs to the category of intermediate-range ballistic missiles as well as is essentially a reincarnation of the famous Soviet RSD-10 Pioneer intermediate-range ballistic missile, the portal wrote.
Some sources indicate that this should be a test launch of the missile from the russia’s Kapustin Yar military training area situated in the Astrakhan region, others - that it will be a combat launch. It should be noted that the latter is extremely unlikely, assessed Defence Express.
According to the portal, work on RS-26 Rubezh began no later than 2006 and was conducted in secret because it violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) of 1987.
"The exact characteristics of the RS-26 Rubezh intermediate-range missile are currently unknown. Among those that are quite probable are a launch weight of 40-50 tons, a range of up to 6,000 km, combat equipment in the form of four separate nuclear warheads with a capacity of 0.3 Mt each," wrote Defence Express.
Ukraine struck a Russian ammunition depot
On Tuesday, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin approved an amendment to the nuclear doctrine, which stipulates that the basis for Moscow's use of nuclear weapons would be a "critical threat" to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Belarus and Russia or the provision of "territory and resources" for aggression against Russia.
This was in response to unconfirmed official reports of the US administration granting Ukraine permission to use American weapons to target objectives deep within Russia.
On Tuesday, Ukraine and Russia reported that Kyiv used American ATACMS missiles to strike a Russian ammunition depot in the Bryansk region, about 130 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. There were also reports that for the first time, Ukraine fired British long-range Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia.
