MOSCOW –
Vladimir Putin’s hypersonic missile carried a simple message to the West over Ukraine: back off, and if you don’t, Russia reserves the right to hit U.S. and British military facilities.
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as „Oreshnik,“ or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Thursday in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with U.S. and British missiles.
In a special statement from the Kremlin just after 8 p.m. in Moscow that day, the Russian president said the war was escalating toward a global conflict, though he avoided any nuclear rhetoric.