Putin gives more details on Russia’s ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile, saying its destructive elements reach over 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit

Russian President Vladimir Putin shared more details on Russia’s “Oreshnik” missile during a state visit to Kazakhstan.

Russia first used the Oreshnik missile in Ukraine last week, striking a munitions factory in Dnipro.

Putin said at the time that his forces had tested “a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile,” named the Oreshnik, in response to Ukraine’s use of US and UK-supplied long-range weapons.

Speaking to the media in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin detailed some more of the Oreshnik’s characteristics.

Putin called the missile a “high-precision and high-power weapon” and said that it was “not equipped with a nuclear explosive device, thus they do not cause environmental contamination.”

He added that the destructive elements inside the missile’s warheads hit temperatures of over 4,000 degrees Celsius (more than 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The damage is substantial,” he continued. “Everything at the centre is reduced to ash, breaking down into its elemental components, and objects located at a depth of three or four, possibly even more, floors below are affected.”

Putin also reiterated that the Oreshnik could be as powerful as a nuclear strike if multiple were fired at once.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) said on Friday that the Oreshnik was likely a variant of the Rubezh RS-26 ballistic missile — a solid-fueled, road-mobile ballistic missile.

The ministry said that the missile’s payload observed in the strike on Dnipro was “six groups of six warheads,” which it said travel at hypersonic speeds before impact.

The missile’s potential range is particularly important and has already attracted a great deal of expert commentary.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Missile Defense Project lists the Rubezh RS-26 as having a range of up to 5,800 km (around 3,600 miles), meaning it could strike targets across Europe and the UK.

Former Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan said Russia’s use of a missile with such a potential range was a clear message to the West, writing on X: “Putin isn’t only messaging Washington D.C. here.”

“This is a message to Europe, not only about their support for Ukraine, but also about Russia’s capacity and willingness to influence policy related to defence and security well beyond Ukraine,” he said.