Putin says barrage response to West-supplied missiles

KYIV: President Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened to strike “decision-making centres” in Kyiv with Russia’s new hypersonic missile, hours after Moscow pummelled Ukraine’s energy grid in an attack that left a million people without power.

Russia fired more than 90 missiles and around 100 drones during the barrage, Kyiv said, in what the Kremlin chief called a “response” to Ukrainian strikes on his territory with Western missiles.

“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial or decision-making centres, including in Kyiv,” Putin told a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana, referring to the hypersonic missile.

Kyiv’s government district -- an area of the capital where multiple government buildings are located -- is protected with intense security, but fears for it have risen over the last week. Russia last week tested its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on Ukraine, and Putin boasted on Thursday that firing several of the weapons at once would have the equivalent force of a nuclear strike, or a “meteorite” hit.

He earlier said the overnight barrage was a “response to continued attacks on our territory by (US) ATACMS missiles.”

“As I have said repeatedly, there will always be a response from our side.”

Putin also claimed Russia knew how many long-range weapons were given to Kyiv and where they were located.

Putin suggested he had hopes for Trump’s second term, describing the Republican on Thursday as an “intelligent person”, capable of finding a “solution”, without specifying what he was referring to.

Speaking to reporters in Kazakhstan after a summit, Putin said he had been shocked by the way the U.S. election campaign had unfolded. He cited “the uncivilised methods used to battle against Trump, up to and including an assassination attempt - and more than once”.

“By the way, in my opinion, he is not safe now,” said Putin. “Unfortunately, in the history of the United States various incidents have happened. I think he (Trump) is intelligent and I hope he’s cautious and understands this.”Putin, who is himself heavily protected, said he had been even more shocked though by how Trump’s family and children had been criticised by political opponents during the U.S. election campaign. He called such behaviour “revolting” and said in Russia not even “bandits” would resort to such methods.

Talking about what he described as the Biden administration’s decision to escalate the war in Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to strike Russia with Western missiles, Putin speculated that it could be a ploy to either help Trump by giving him something to roll back or a way of making his life more difficult with Russia. Either way, Putin said he thought Trump would “find the solution” and said Moscow was ready for dialogue.

The Russian leader spoke hours after the overnight barrage that left more than half a million subscribers in Ukraine’s western Lviv region cut off from electricity. Another 280,000 in the western Rivne region and 215,000 in the northwestern Volyn region also lost power, officials said.

Since Moscow shocked the West and Kyiv by testing its new ballistic missile Oreshnik on the city of Dnipro last week, Russian officials have touted the arm’s might.

Putin said the Oreshnik could turn anything “into dust” and hit at a temperature comparable to “the surface of the sun.”

He said Russia was “forced” to “test (the weapon) in combat conditions” after Kyiv’s first strike on Russian territory using ATACMS.

Putin said Thursday the Oreshnik could travel “around three kilometres per second” and that its elements could reach a temperature almost “like the surface of the sun.”