Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would
keep testing its new hypersonic missile in combat and has
a stockpile of them at the ready.
Putin spoke a day after Russia fired the new Oreshnik
missile into Ukraine for the first time.
This CCTV footage shows flashes over the Ukrainian city of
NEPRO after Russia said it fired the hypersonic medium range
missile.
As we know, as you know, no one in the
world has such a weapon yet, Putin said in televised
comments.
He said the step was prompted by Ukraine's use of
US ballistic missiles and British cruise missiles to hit Russia.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky said Kiev was working with Western
partners to work out systems to counter quote new risks.
He described Russia's use of the new missile as an
escalation, while Russia said more tests would follow.
AUS official said the weapon is experimental and that Russia
has a limited number of them.
Rand Corporation engineer and analyst Michael Bonert.
In many ways, this is Putin acting out because he
feels vulnerable, and this is one of the few ways
left that he can demonstrate concern while trying to look
strong at the same time.
Moscow says that by giving the green light for Ukraine
to fire Western missiles deep inside Russia, the US and
its allies are entering into direct conflict with Russia.
On Tuesday, Putin approved policy changes that lowered the threshold
for Russia to use nuclear weapons in response to an
attack with conventional ones.