The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, proposed this Thursday to the United States a “duel” between the new Russian hypersonic weapons and the Western missile defense systems, whose scenario, he said, would be the Ukrainian capital, kyiv.
“Let them choose any facility for us to attack, say, in kyiv. Let them concentrate all their anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems there. And we will attack with (a missile) Oreshnik. And we’ll see what happens. We are prepared for that experiment. Is the other party willing?” he said during his annual press conference.
Putin has described this “technological experiment” as a “21st century high-tech duel” between Russia and the West.
The Russian president has highlighted that the maximum range of the Oreshnik, launched for the first time on November 21 against a military factory in Ukraine, is 5,500 kilometers. “In a few seconds the separation of the warheads begins. And that’s it, they missed the train. So they have no option to shoot down these missiles,” he said.
He has stressed that the anti-missile shield created by the US is “expensive and does little when it comes to guaranteeing the security of his country.” “We have done a lot to overcome the American anti-missile shield,” he added.
The Russian leader, who recently approved a new nuclear doctrine, has said that in Romania and Poland NATO has installed some 24 anti-missile batteries, which in the case of the second country have a range of 1,000 kilometers. “Imagine that our system is about 2,000 kilometers away, but even then the anti-missile systems on Polish territory will not be able to reach it.”
Willing to meet with Trump
The head of the Kremlin has also expressed his willingness to meet “at any time” with the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. “I am willing to do it (talk) at any time and to meet, too,” the Russian leader said in his press conference.
Putin has acknowledged that he still does not know when the eventual meeting would take place, because Trump “has not said anything” about it. In any case, he was convinced that both will have “something to talk about.” “If we ever meet with President-elect Trump, I am sure we will have something to talk about,” he insisted.
Last week the Kremlin reported that the Russian leader had not received any invitation from Trump to attend his inauguration, which will take place on January 20. The last meeting between the two took place in June 2019 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan.
Trump, who recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly said that one of his priorities after returning to the White House will be ending the war in Ukraine.
Putin has assured that he does not know how much longer the war in Ukraine caused by the invasion he ordered in February 2022 will last, although he has stated that Moscow is getting closer to achieving its objectives on the battlefield.
“Combats are complicated, so predicting the future is difficult and meaningless,” said the head of the Kremlin, who took advantage of the first minutes of his speech to show the public the banner given to him by one of the airborne brigades that combat in Ukraine.
When asked about the Ukrainian troops that have occupied a part of the Russian Kursk region since last August, he promised that the enemy will “without a doubt” be expelled. “There is no doubt about it. I cannot and do not want to give a specific date when they will be liquidated. The boys are fighting, there are fights right now,” he stated.
According to Western media, the Kremlin has proposed recovering Kursk before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
With information from EFE.
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