Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military leadership continue to praise the ballistic missile that Russian forces fired into Ukraine on the 21st November, possibly in an attempt to artificially inflate expectations of Russian capabilities and encourage Western and Ukrainian restraint.
This is what the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated in its daily analysis.
It is possible that in the coming days, Russia will conduct an additional test launch of the same or a similar ballistic missile to achieve the same tactical effect.
Russian sources say Russia will close part of its airspace on November 23-24 for a missile test, but did not specify what type of missile Russian forces will test.
GUR Deputy Chief Major General Vadim Skibitsky warned on November 22 that Russia probably possesses up to 10 Oreshnik missiles. and that it will probably conduct test launches of all these missiles in the future.
Putin stressed that the "Oreshnik" is not a modernization of an old Soviet missile, and stated that the Russian designers created it "on the basis of modern, cutting-edge developments". Putin repeated the claims that there is no defense system against "Oreshnik" and announced that Russia is already planning the serial production of this missile.
The Commander of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergey Karakaev, told Putin that "Oreshnik" can hit targets all over Europe, and stressed that there are no analogues of "Oreshnik" anywhere in the world.
However, US and Ukrainian reports on the November 21 ballistic missile strike emphasize that the Oreshnik missile in its essence is not a new Russian potential.
White House and Pentagon officials confirmed that Russia had fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IBM) at Ukraine, and Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Russia based the "Oreshnik" of the existing Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) RS-26 "Rubezh" model.
Singh also reiterated that Ukraine has already been subjected to Russian missile attacks that have "significantly greater" warheads from "Oreshnik".
The Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) said on November 22 that Ukraine assesses that the Oreshnik that Russia launched on November 21 is actually a Kedr missile that Russia has been developing since 2018-2019 Mr. in an attempt to update the ICBM model "Yars" for shorter distances.
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Russia continues to build its training capacity by establishing new military service schools in occupied Ukraine.