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The Ukrainian military is reporting that Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) along with six other missiles at Dnipro, in Ukraine’s southeast. But an unnamed Western official told ABC that the missile was not a long-range weapon, but rather a shorter-range ballistic missile.
The Russian missile was launched from the Astrahan region, in Russia’s southwest. According to Google Maps, the distance from Astrahan oblast to the city of Dnipro is more than 1,200 miles. The other missiles fired at Dnipro were KH-101 missiles with a range of about 2,100 miles.
If true, this is a major and troubling escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Biden did some escalating of his own, giving the green light for Ukraine to launch American ATACMS into Russian territory for the first time. This kind of tit-for-tat escalation could get out of control. Previously, Putin said he changed Russia’s nuclear doctrine to make any attack on Russian territory by Ukraine with Western missiles an attack that would require a nuclear response.
I’m not trying to be an alarmist. But once the escalation game starts, someone is going to have to climb down off the ledge or the world will be in big trouble. I don’t see Putin backing down.
