The conflict in Ukraine has increased in its intensity with the firing of what Russia has claimed to be an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in late November. The missile carried six conventional warheards, which struck the city in an attack which the BBC reported lasted for about three hours, but caused limited damage on the ground.
A few days later, the Russian president said he would use the new missiles to turn targets in Kyiv “to dust”, increasing the pressure on the Ukrainian government as Russian troops continued to make advances in the country’s east. The Oreshnik missile fired on November was not equipped with nuclear warheads, although Putin said the weapon was “comparable in strength to a nuclear strike” if enough missiles were aimed at a target:
The kinetic impact is powerful, like a meteorite falling. We know in history what meteorites have fallen where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough for whole lakes to form.
