Russia responds to Ukraine and fires nuclear-capable missile

This Tuesday (19), the war in Ukraine surpassed the 2,000-day mark, reaching the moment of greatest tension between Russia and Western countries. This Thursday (21) the Russians bombed the Ukrainian city of Dnipro using, for the first time in the conflict, an intercontinental missile with nuclear capability.

The attack is a strong reaction and show of force against the proxy war perpetrated by the West, which last week authorized Kiev to use long-range missiles manufactured in these countries against Russian soil.

According to the Ukrainians, the intercontinental missile was launched from the Astrakhan region, in southern Russia, in an attack on Dnipro, in central-eastern Ukraine, on Thursday morning. The two cities are separated by a thousand kilometers.

The attack targeted businesses and critical infrastructure in the city, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said Russian missiles damaged an industrial facility and caused fires in Dnipro. Two people were injured.

The intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from the ground and can be equipped with nuclear warheads and, as its name suggests, is designed to travel long distances. A Ukrainian Air Force source told the AFP news agency that the missile launched by Russia did not carry a nuclear warhead.

According to the Britannica encyclopedia, only the United States, Russia and China have this type of missiles.

The action represents a sign that Russia will not be intimidated by the latest maneuvers by the United States and its allies and that it is willing to stretch the rope if the West continues to advance in the geopolitical chessboard.

This Tuesday (19), the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, changed the country’s military doctrine in reaction to the Ukrainian attack in which Ukraine reached, for the first time, Russian territory with long-range missiles produced by the United States.

In short, the measure makes the use of nuclear weapons to defend one’s own territory more flexible. The document ratifies the revised nuclear doctrine – entitled “Fundamentals of State Policy on Nuclear Deterrence” – and updates the country’s guidelines against threats of nuclear or conventional attacks.

According to the decree, one of its main objectives is to “dissuade a potential adversary from attacking Russia and its allies”, so that this attacking country “understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against Russia”.

In a press statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that “the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression using conventional weapons against Russia and/or the Republic of Belarus.”

The change in military doctrine is a reaction to the authorization that outgoing US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine to strike targets inside Russian territory with long-range missiles, known as ATACMS, produced by US companies.

Taking advantage of the permission, the Ukrainians launched for the first time in the early hours of Monday (18) to Tuesday an air attack using six of these missiles, five of which were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft systems, while the sixth was damaged.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, fragments of the damaged missile “fell on the technical territory of a military facility in Bryansk province, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished.” The ministry also reported that there were no victims or material damage.

The ballistic missiles are known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS.

The ATACMS, manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin, are short-range ballistic missiles (there are devices that reach more than 12 thousand kilometers) that, depending on the model, can hit targets 300 kilometers away with a warhead containing around 170 kilograms of explosives. .

Ballistic missiles fly much higher in the atmosphere than artillery rockets and often farther, returning to the ground at incredibly high speeds due to gravity.

ATACMS can be fired from HIMARS mobile launchers that the United States has supplied to Ukraine, as well as from older M270 launchers sent by Britain and Germany.

Moscow issued a statement considering the use of these missiles as direct US interference in the war and promised “a new phase of the conflict”.

The following day, this Wednesday (20), the Ukrainian armed forces launched another attack, this time a series of Storm Shadow missiles, produced by the United Kingdom, against the city of Mariano, close to the border with Kazakhstan.

Until now, the permission granted by the United Kingdom to the Ukrainians authorized the use of Storm Shadow by Kiev’s forces only on Ukrainian territory. After Washington authorized attacks with American weapons against targets in Russia, however, London continued with the same movement.