Russian Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile Strike Sends 'Clear Message' to West, Egyptian General Says
© Sputnik . Gavriil Grigorov
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On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian armed forces carried out a combined strike involving the latest Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missiles against a Ukrainian defense industrial facility in response to Kiev’s strikes on Russian territory using American and British weapons.
The Russian Oreshnik hypersonic missile strike sends a "clear message" to the West, Hisham Al-Halabi, a retired major general of the Egyptian Air Force General Staff, commented on the successful test of the Russian advanced weapon in an interview with Sputnik.
"The Russians could use non-hypersonic missiles, meaning those with a speed not exceeding Mach 5, but the very fact of using hypersonic weapons in a theater of war that allows the use of conventional missiles is a very clear signal that Russia has invincible hypersonic weapons," Al-Halabi said.
He stressed that "Europe and the United States have no means of intercepting" this type of missile.
"So this message is twofold: the non-nuclear warning of a conventional escalation and the longer-term nuclear warning that these missiles could be equipped with tactical nuclear weapons," the general added.
Earlier, outgoing US President Biden authorized Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles against Russia, according to US media. Then, Kiev launched six such missiles at the Russian Bryansk region on November 18-19, according to the Russian MoD. Later, Russia's air defenses intercepted two British Storm Shadow missiles, the ministry stated.
