Ukrainian Drone Reportedly Targets Kapustin Yar, Site of Oreshnik Missile Launch

A Ukrainian drone reportedly targeted the Kapustin Yar military testing site in Russia’s Astrakhan region, known as the launch site of the Oreshnik ballistic missile toward Ukraine’s Dnipro city. The incident was reported by the Russian Telegram channel Mash.

Conflicting accounts have emerged about the attack. Some sources claim the drone was intercepted by local air defense systems just meters from the facility’s entrance, with the resulting blast wave causing minor damage to the gate.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has not confirmed the reported attack on Kapustin Yar. Instead, officials stated that air defense forces successfully repelled an overnight assault involving 16 Ukrainian aircraft-type drones.

According to the ministry, 14 drones were shot down over the Bryansk region, with one intercepted in both the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

On Nov. 21, the new intermediate-range ballistic missile called Oreshnik was used by Russia in a strike on Ukraine’s Dnipro city. It is a nuclear-capable weapon that has not been previously mentioned in public.

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Ukrainian media reported that the missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, approximately 900 kilometers (550 miles) from Dnipro.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin stated that the missile strike on Dnipro was a combat test for “one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems” during an unscheduled television appearance on Nov. 21.

He claimed the missile, deployed in a “non-nuclear hypersonic configuration,” was successfully tested and hit its intended target.

The missile supposedly travels at Mach 10 – 2.95 kilometers per second in the upper atmosphere – and is, according to Putin, impervious to interception by current air defense systems. [Mach number is meaningless while the missile is in space where there is no speed of sound.]

“Modern air defense systems cannot intercept such missiles. That’s impossible,” Putin claimed.

He boasted that “as of today, there are no means of counteracting such a weapon.”

While Putin described the weapon as “medium-range,” Russian military analysts suggested that the more accurate term in English would be “intermediate-range.”

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) are typically classified as those having a maximum range of 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers (1860 to 3,418 miles), placing them below intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in classification. Medium-range ballistic missiles is typically the class of weapons with a maximum range between 1,000 and 3,000 km (620 to 1860 miles).