Malyuk: in the Summer of 2023, Ukraine Destroyed One of the Three Oreshniks on the Territory of Russian Federation

In the summer of 2023, the Ukrainian Defense Forces destroyed one of the three Russian medium-range ballistic missile systems Oreshnik (Kedr).

This was announced by the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk during a briefing, Ukrinform reports.

The new Russian development was destroyed at a missile military range in the northwestern part of the Astrakhan region.

“We have never voiced this before, but we can briefly say that one of the three Oreshniks was successfully destroyed on their territory, at Kapustyn Yar, by the DIU, the SSU and the Foreign Intelligence Service” he said.

Malyuk assured that “the destruction was one hundred percent”. He noted that the operation was not made public in any way, and the destruction of the Oreshnik was reported exclusively to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the President of Ukraine. Also, according to the SSU head, several presidents of other countries knew about it.

“It was at a time when the name ‘Oreshnik’ was not known or used by the general public, and the Russians did not threaten it much at that time. If I’m not mistaken, we conducted this successful operation the summer before last,” he added.

At the end of September, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko ‘accidentally’ showed what the Russian Oreshnik missile system looks like.

A model of the mobile system was spotted in the dictator’s office. Judging by the photo, the Oreshnik is mounted on a chassis with a 12×12 wheel formula, probably the MZKT-79291.

It is known that the Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile is developed on the basis of the RS-26 Rubezh.

The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine detailed that the real name of the complex is not Oreshnik but Kedr.

The missile is equipped with six warheads, each equipped with six submunitions. The speed on the final section of the trajectory is over 11 machs.

The tests of the Kedr missile system took place at the Kapustyn Yar test site in October 2023 and June 2024.