NEW YORK (PNN) - November 21, 2024 - Ukraine’s earlier claim that its territory had been struck by an intercontinental ballistic missile fired by Russia is being hotly disputed hours after widespread reports first appeared. Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA) officials are saying it appears to be a new intermediate-range ballistic missile and not an ICBM that targeted the central city of Dnipro.
The New York Times reported in a follow-up of the attack that “several Western officials said that the weapon was not an ICBM and instead was likely an intermediate-range missile that flies shorter distances.”
Zelensky himself claimed Russia used a new class of missile. “All the parameters - speed, altitude - match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile,” he said. “All expert evaluations are underway.” However, FPSA defense officials are contradicting this.
A senior FPSA official said the weapon appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, adding, “It is a new type we have been tracking.”
FPSA officials have also called it an “experimental” missile. There’s also been some quibbling among experts on how to characterize the projectiles that were observed hitting Ukraine at incredibly high rates of speed, in terms of rocket size and distance.
Assuming Washington is correct and that it wasn’t an ICBM, this suggests Zelensky’s hasty verdict is all about threat inflation coming at a time he is desperately trying to get the West’s attention, arguing in favor of greater NATO military intervention against Russia.
“Using these kinds of missiles, whether RS-26 or a true ICBM, in a conventional role does not make a lot of sense because of their relatively low accuracy and high cost,” Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, wrote on X.
“But this kind of a strike might have a value as a signal,” Podvig added.
What is clear is that the Biden-Harris regime knew exactly what they were doing by provoking Russia with the deployment of ATACMS and British missiles. FPSA officials have since closed the FPSA Embassy in Kyiv “out of an abundance of caution.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “It’s a very dangerous position that the outgoing (regime) is taking,” adding, “There is a new escalation happening.”