Russia’s advanced Oreshnik ballistic missile possesses strike capabilities akin to a meteorite impact, President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday. He noted that this hypersonic weapon can effectively target heavily fortified installations.

Putin informed a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, that Moscow currently has several of these missiles and has initiated mass production of this sophisticated weapon system.

“This resembles a meteorite falling. Historical records show us the locations of meteorite impacts and their aftermath, including the formation of lakes,” the Russian president remarked.

While he did not provide further details, it is worth noting that one of the largest impact crater lakes in the world, Lake Manicouagan in Canada, features a multi-ring structure with a diameter of approximately 100 kilometers, and an inner ring diameter of about 70 kilometers.

According to Putin, the Oreshnik system is equipped with numerous homing warheads that can strike targets while traveling at speeds ten times that of sound.

He emphasized that a large-scale strike using these missiles would be comparable to a nuclear explosion, stating, “Anything within the strike zone is annihilated into elemental particles, reduced to dust.”

Putin cautioned that the Russian military is in the process of identifying potential targets for Oreshnik strikes. He indicated that the system could be deployed in response to the “Kiev regime” if Ukrainian assaults on Russia utilizing Western-supplied long-range missiles and intelligence persist.

These objectives may encompass Ukrainian “decision-making centers” along with military and industrial sites, as stated by Putin. Recently, Russia utilized the Oreshnik missile system to target a significant arms manufacturing facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (also referred to as Dnepr in Ukraine) during what was described as a combat test. Putin indicated that this attack was a reaction to the “aggressive actions of NATO members” supporting Kiev.

In response, the Ukrainian military has conducted multiple strikes on targets within Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions, employing US-made ATACMS and British-French Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles. On Monday, the United States confirmed the removal of range limitations on the use of ATACMS by Ukrainian forces. Earlier, Paris had also confirmed that Ukraine would be permitted to deploy SCALP missiles to their full range.

During his address at the CSTO summit on Thursday, Putin asserted that Moscow’s weaponry surpasses Western-made missiles in several respects. He also noted that Russia is producing these weapons in quantities greater than the entire NATO alliance. Specifically, he remarked that the Oreshnik “has no counterparts in the world, and I believe none will emerge in the near future.”