Russia has delivered another hypersonic Oreshnik missile strike on Lviv, Ukraine, which most Western countries are are calling out as an unacceptable escalation to the war and cause for major concern in Europe.
I say "most Western countries" because notably absent from the condemnations was the USA, which contented itself with a totally unrelated and, in the circumstances, almost laughable press release by the US Ambassador to NATO, hailing the '"tremendous progress toward a durable, enforceable peace" in Ukraine, adding that "President Trump wants peace in Ukraine". Well, how's that going guys? Talk about tone deaf.
While the rest of Europe was busy condemning Russia's move and speculating on what it might means for NATO and the EU, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not even mention the Oreshnik strike when speaking to Mark Rutte.(Secretary-General of NATO), preferring to discuss Arctic security. Was he even aware of it? And there was nothing at all from the normally garrulous President Trump.
This is only the second time that Russia has employed its hypersonic missiles. The first was back in November 2024, when Russia's first ever use of the missisle merely targeted an apparently disused factory in Dnipro, and even that event attracted a huge outcry. This one targeted the city of Lviv, just an hour's drive from the Ukrainian border with Poland, and was part of a wider coordinated attack on Kyiv involving over 270 missiles and drones.
So, why is the use of the Oreshnik considered such an escalation? It's partly that Russia's hypersonic (faster than the speed of sound) missiles were developed during the Cold War to deliver a nuclear payload, even though this particular one carried conventional non-nuclear armaments. It's partly that it travels so fast that it is very hard to shoot down and protect against. It's partly that it is very expensive, and so for Russia to be using it they must want to send a very important message. It's partly that it is considered a medium range (600-1,000 miles), or even intermediate range (upto, or even in excess of, 3,000 miles), ballistic missile, with all the connotations for NATO and Europe that brings with it.
And it's partly that it's just a very nasty piece of work. It can rain down up to six independently-targetable "re-entry vehicles", each of which may contain four to six separate ordnances, each of which in turn can be pointed at separate targets. It travels at 8,000 mph (13,000 kph), and soars up above the atmosphere before turning down sharply towards its intended target, making it almost unstoppable by the air defence systems available to Ukraine. It's a fearsome weapon and its potential destructive power is immense, especially given the difficulty of defence against it.
And why now? Well, no-one really understands the mind of Vladimir Putin, any more than they do that of Donald Trump. Moscow's official line is that it is in response to Ukraine's targeting of Putin's residence late last year, even though the CIA has assessed that it was not actually targeting the residence at all. In reality, it is probably just Russia sabre-rattling at a time when one of its allies, Venezuela, is under attack by American forces, and a Russian-flagged tanker carrying Venezuelan oil was intercepted by the Americans in the Atlantic.
This is especially likely given that this Oreshnik launch, like the one in 2024, carried only inert or "dummy" warheads according to Ukrainian officials. So, this was much more a warning of what Russia could do, to Ukraine and to others, rather than a strategic strike on infrastructure intended to do real damage.
Be that as it may, it seems like the Cold War may be back with a vengeance. And it's already warming up.
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