Oreshnik Missile Strike Strongly Affects Western Defense Circles

(MENAFN) Russia’s latest deployment of its advanced Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile has produced a “staggering” impact on Western armed forces and policymakers, according to Sergey Naryshkin, chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

He explained that the attack on an aviation facility in the Ukrainian city of Lviv was widely interpreted as a signal discouraging Kiev’s supporters from becoming directly engaged in the conflict.

Earlier this month, Russian forces struck the site, which is used to maintain F-16 and MiG-29 fighter jets, located close to the Polish frontier. Footage from local surveillance cameras showed multiple projectiles rapidly plunging toward the target from above.

In the aftermath of the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin likened the missile’s destructive capability to a “falling meteor,” emphasizing that it is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Naryshkin noted that the breakthrough left Western political figures visibly unsettled. “Both [their] experts and military specialists admitted they had no technical or military technical means to block these systems,” he said in an interview with a news agency released on Monday.

He further asserted that Western governments interpreted the strike “as a warning against their military’s direct involvement… in the hostilities,” stressing that this assessment also applies to any prospective deployment of NATO forces in Ukraine once the conflict concludes.

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