ASTANA – Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday said a massive air attack against Ukraine was Moscow’s “response” to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western missiles. He has previously railed at Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory, warning of retaliation.

“We carried out a comprehensive strike,” he told allies during a Kazakhstan visit several hours after the attack. “It was a response to continued attacks on our territory by (the United States) ATACMS missiles,” he said in the televised remarks. Putin said Russia launched more than 90 missiles and 100 drones, saying that 17 targets had been hit – the type of detail that the president rarely gives.

More than one million people were without power in freezing temperatures in Ukraine after the attack. Putin claimed Russia knew how many long-range weapons were given to Kyiv, and “where they are”. He said Russia was “forced to test” its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on Ukraine last week in a move that shocked Kyiv and the West, threatening more such “testing” strikes. Putin said Russian armed forces were choosing targets to hit in Ukraine, including “decision-making centres in Kyiv”. He said Kyiv had tried to strike “buildings of state importance in Saint Petersburg and Moscow” throughout the conflict. The Kremlin chief boasted that the Oreshnik could turn anything it hit “into dust”, and that several of the weapons fired together would be “comparable to a nuclear strike”.

He claimed the Oreshnik could travel “around three kilometres per second”, and that its attacking elements reach a temperature almost “like the surface of the sun”. “If there are more strikes on Russian territory using Western long-range missiles… we will be responding, including with possible continued testing of Oreshniks in combat conditions,” Putin said. 

– Nampa/AFP