Ukraine Claims To Destroy Russia's Orestnik Missile

JAKARTA - Ukraine destroyed one of Russia's Orestnik medium-range missiles in a special operation in the summer of 2023.

Head of the SBU security service Vasyl Maliuk said the operation was carried out jointly by SBU, GUR military intelligence, and foreign intelligence. It was confirmed that the operation was "100% successful".

Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

Russia first used the Orestnik missile, which means aEL tree in Russian 'against Ukraine in November 2024, targeting a defense company in Dnipro, more than a year after Kyiv allegedly destroyed one of the missiles.

"In short, we can convey that one of the three Orestniks was successfully destroyed in their (Russia) region in Kapustin Yar," Maliuk said at a briefing chaired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and also attended by Ukrainian Foreign Ministers, Heads of Foreign Intelligence, and other officials.

Maliuk did not provide details on how the operation was carried out.

Ukrainian intelligence officials say Russia is producing three Oreshniks this year and plans to double its annual production to six.

Zelenskiy said 25 companies were involved in Oreshnik production and urged Western Ukrainian partners to impose sanctions on them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Oreshnik was impossible to intercept and had comparable damage to nuclear weapons, although Western experts questioned this statement.

Putin said last June Russia was increasing production but did not provide further details.

The Orestnik missile was featured in a joint Russia-Belarsia military exercise last month.

This week, Belarus, Russia's main ally, confirmed it would place the Orestnik missile system in its territory, which borders Ukraine, in December.