Russian President Vladimir Putin answered the US decision to allow Ukraine to use Nato-made long-range missiles on Russian targets by firing an Oreshnik ICBM at a Ukrainian city on November 22. 

The experimental weapon, with a range of 5,000 km and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, has sent chills across Europe and comes shortly after Putin updated Russia’s nuclear policy to allow a nuclear first strike on any country that attacks Russia. The Oreshnik can reach most major European cities. 

US President Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission to fire its ATACMS at military targets inside Russia at the weekend, which was quickly followed by the first volley. The UK also cleared the war for Ukraine to use it Storm Shadow cruise missile the next day and Ukraine also fired the first of those this week. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been lobbying for such permission for months as part of his victory plan but Washington has been reluctant for fear of escalating the conflict into a direct confrontation between Russia and Nato. 

After the announcement on permissions, Putin warned that a strike on Russia using a Nato-made weapon would be considered a direct attack on Russia by the alliance. 

The Kremlin has now responded by using an Oreshnik missile for the first time in what was clearly intended to be a warning to the incoming Trump administration. The Kremlin warned the US of the imminent launch of the Oreshnik through the START missile treaty terms that were renewed in January 2021 to de-escalate nuclear channels. 

“Russia struck the Yuzhmash plant [a munitions manufacturer] in Dnipro city with a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile, ‘Oreshnik,’” Putin said in a televised address. “Russia considers itself entitled to use weapons against facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russian facilities.”

Russia’s unprecedented use of a massive ICBM against the industrial city of Dnipro in central Ukraine is also a message to Kyiv and its allies and suggests the war is escalating again with just two months left in the Biden administration.

 “Today, there was a new Russian rocket,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address. “Today, our crazy neighbour once again showed what he really is and how he despises dignity, freedom and people’s lives in general.”

The Oreshnik is significantly more powerful than the ATACMS and Storm Shadow and has a much longer range; the Nato missiles have a range of 300 km and 560 km respectively, but the Oreshnik can reach target over 5,800 km away, putting many European capitals within range. 

There is no previous record of a Russian missile dubbed “Oreshnik,” and it is common for the Kremlin to intentionally muddy the waters over its weapons systems and capabilities.

The US State Department, commenting on the strike, said the missiles appears to be version of an RS-26 Rubezh ballistic missile – a 40-tonne solid-fuel multi-stage missile carrying multiple re-entry vehicles, which reaches velocities in excess of 20 times the speed of sound – that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Previously, the use of the Oreshnik would have been prohibited by the Cold War-era Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INS) on the use of ICBMs, but the US unilaterally withdrew from that treaty in 2019, claiming that Russia was ignoring its provisions and naming the deployment, including the RS-26. Russia withdrew from the treaty shortly afterwards.