By David Sole
On November 17 Ukraine was authorized to use US supplied ATACMS long-range missiles to attack targets deep inside the territory of the Russian Federation. Until then these missiles were restricted to the territories presently or formerly under Ukraine’s control. President Joe Biden announced this serious escalation.
On November 19 six ATACMS were launched into Russia.
What is almost never reported by Western mass media and widely unknown by the public in the United States is that Ukrainians do not have the expertise to program the satellite targeting systems for these missiles. So U.S.military specialists are launching attacks against Russia. Russia’s President Putin had repeatedly warned that sending ATACMS into Russia would put the US and NATO in a “state of war” with Russia.
On November 19 six ATACMS were launched into Russian territory, ignoring the dire warning by the Russian leader. The New York Times had, in reporting the change in policy by Biden, expressed their belief that Putin was bluffing.
On November 20 up to 12 long-range Storm Shadow missiles provided to Ukraine by Britain were launched into Russia, again ignoring President Putin’s warning. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that all six ATACMS were shot down, with some debris from one missile causing minor damage. The Russians also claimed that the Storm Shadow missiles were also destroyed.
Russia responded swiftly. On the very next day, November 21, a new, experimental Russian missile called Oreshnik was launched against Ukraine. It took off in Russia’s Astrakhan region and struck a military production factory in the city of Dnipro. The factory was reportedly destroyed by the missile’s multiple, independently guided warheads. The Oreshnik did not carry nuclear warheads but is designed to do so.
Russian missiles have regularly targeted military facilities, weapons factories, electric power plants and troop concentrations. But what is new about Oreshnik is that it travels far faster than other, even hyper-sonic, missiles in Russia’s known arsenal. The Oreshnik reportedly travels at Mach 10 – ten times the speed of sound – or over 7,500 miles per hour. That is about 2.1 miles per second. That makes the new missile impossible to shoot down.
It was first speculated in the press that Russia had used an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). But it turns out this is a new intermediate range ballistic missile. Although Russia was not required to do so by existing treaties, the Kremlin gave a 30 minute warning to the United States military of the pending launch. This warning was to ensure that no military in the west would mistake the missile for a nuclear attack.
This new development has created alarm in all European capitals, since Oreshnik has the range to strike anywhere on the continent. “NATO and Ukrainian officials are set to take part in emergency talks … after Russia launched a hypersonic missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro…. It has intensified fears that the war is entering a ‘decisive phase’ according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who described the situation as taking on ‘very dramatic dimensions’” according to Newsweek.
Poland has a reason to be worried with this new development. Last week a US ballistic missile base was opened in Redzikowo, Poland as “part of the broader NATO shield against Russia.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson called it “another frankly provocative step in a series of deeply destabilizing actions by the Americans and their allies.”
The Oreshnik missile strike was so alarming that the Ukrainian parliament immediately canceled its scheduled meeting in Kiev. Ukraine’s President Zelensky, faced with a collapse of his military across hundreds of miles of front lines, used the occasion to “demand ‘strong reaction’” from his Western puppet masters. “Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength” Zelensky is quoted as saying.
Zelensky knows that Ukraine has only a very limited number of long-range missiles which cannot change the course of the war. The Times of London reported on November 22 that: “These special missiles are in short supply….it’s believed the Kyiv government has only about 50 missiles at this point.” The Ukrainian leader is hoping that the US, UK and European Union will escalate the war further to save his regime.
The desperation of the Ukrainian military situation was made clear when former Ukraine Commander General Valerii Zaluzhnyi visited Ukrainian troops training in England. Zaluzhnyi is currently serving as Ukraine’s ambassador to London. The Sun reported that Zaluzhnyitold told the troops: “Remember that war becomes more cruel every day. It leaves almost no chance of survival….Learn not to be afraid of death…”
As the battlefront conditions deteriorate for the Ukraine proxy army and the Russian forces relentlessly advance, Ukraine’s masters in Washington, London, and Paris seem to be opting for a dangerous escalation rather than negotiations. Russia has shown, once again, that it will not back down from its original goal of demilitarization of its Ukrainian neighbor and a guarantee of Ukrainian neutrality. The latest missile exchange between the great powers could easily get out of hand. A wider war is clearly a real possibility.
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