STORY: :: Putin proposes a missile duel with the U.S. to prove Russia’s Oreshnik missiles can trump any defense system
:: December 19, 2024
:: Moscow, Russia
:: Vladimir Putin, Russian President
:: “There is no chance of shooting down these Oreshnik missiles. Well, if those Western experts you mentioned think they can be shot down, we propose they – and those in the West and the United States who pay them for their analysis – conduct some kind of technological experiment, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them name some object, let’s say, in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we will hit it with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?”
Addressing Western skepticism about the Oreshnik, Putin suggested that both sides select a designated target to be protected by U.S. missiles.
Putin also said that Oreshnik was a modern weapon, though it is based on previous Russian design developments.
Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21, in what Putin cast as a response to Ukraine’s first use of U.S. ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission.
