Ukraine has destroyed one of three Russian Oreshnik missiles – Security Service head

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) have destroyed one of Russia's three Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles, SSU head Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk has announced.

Source: Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, at a joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine

Details: Maliuk said the missile was destroyed at Kapustin Yar, a military training area and rocket launch complex in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast.

Quote: "We have not made this public until now. But now we can briefly say that one of the three Oreshnik missiles was successfully destroyed on their territory [in the Russian Federation – ed.] at Kapustin Yar by DIU, SSU and FIS forces."

More details: The SSU chief reported that "the destruction was total" and that it was "a very successful operation".

Quote: "This was reported only to the supreme commander-in-chief, the president of Ukraine. A few other heads of state were also informed."

More details: Maliuk added that the operation was carried out at a time "when almost no one had heard of the Oreshnik". At that point, the Russians had not really started threatening to use this weapon.

Quote: "If I'm not mistaken, we carried out this successful operation the summer before last."

More details: Russia claims the Oreshnik missile has a range of up to 5,500 km and its flight speed is 10-11 Mach.

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