The War in the Ukraine

He Was Shot in the Face. Now Ukraine Wants to Draft Him.​

US Says Russia May Fire Oreshnik Missile at Ukraine in Days​

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration on Wednesday warned that Russia may fire another intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine, after what Moscow said were strikes on its territory with US-supplied weapons.

The Russian attack may come within days, according to a US official, who asked not to be identified as the assessment hasn’t been made public.

The warning comes as the Russian Defense Ministry vowed to respond to Ukraine hitting a military airfield in the southwestern Rostov region with what it says were six US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

“This attack with western long-range weapons won’t be left unanswered,” it said in a statement Wednesday on Telegram. There was no confirmation from the US or Ukraine of that attack.

Both sides have ratcheted up missile attacks recently in the nearly three-year war. Moscow first used the Oreshnik last month in a strike launched at the city of Dnipro in response to the US and UK allowing Ukraine to fire weapons deeper into Russia.

The US sought to play down the significance of the potential Russian strike. Moscow likely only possesses a handful of the experimental Oreshnik, which carry a smaller warhead than other missiles Russia has fired at Ukraine, said the US official. Washington doesn’t consider the weapon a game-changer, but instead is intended only to terrorize the population, the official said.

It wasn’t clear how much damage the strike last month did. At the time, the US said the weapon was an experimental version of the RS-26 Rubezh missile.

Russia has said the Oreshnik, which can carry a nuclear warhead, is a hypersonic weapon that can’t be intercepted with air defense systems the US has supplied Ukraine.

Russia’s war in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022, is entering a new phase with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to force both sides into talks. President Joe Biden and other allies have ramped up support for Kyiv, seeking to bolster its negotiating position, by rushing more weapons and defenses to Ukraine while seeking tighten the screws on Russia’s economy.

The impact of the US-led efforts against Putin are beginning to emerge both in Russia and abroad. The war-focused economy has been resilient but starting to show signs of strain, with inflation surging amid a worker shortage and import restrictions.

Meanwhile, the toll the war has had on its military became apparent when Russian forces were unable to defend the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which it had propped up against rebels, deploying troops there in 2015.

Putin had warned last month that Russia may fire Oreshnik at “decision-making centers” in Kyiv, as well as military and defense industry enterprises.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said his forces attacked military and fuel facilities in Russia overnight, Ukraine didn’t confirm that it had used western-supplied weapons.

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