Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating
Russia hails the Oreshnik as unstoppable; but in 2023, seven of its hypersonic Kh-47M2 cousins were shot down by U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.
Moscow says the strike was payback, using its sharpest blade: the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile.
In the overnight hours late Thursday, Moscow fired the nuclear-capable missile at western Ukraine as part of a barrage on targets including Kyiv. Initial reports are that four people were killed Initial reports said four people were killed, and dozens wounded.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the attack was retaliation for an attempted “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” on President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region on December 28–29.
“We will not leave terrorist actions by the Kiev regime without a response,” Putin said.
Kyiv denied the allegation, and Russia acknowledged that all of the alleged Ukrainian drones were intercepted.
Moscow said its strike targeted Ukrainian drone production facilities, military-industrial energy infrastructure, and other military sites. Video circulating online from Lviv Region showed multiple projectiles descending in rapid succession.
Lviv Mayor Andrey Sadovoy confirmed that a piece of critical infrastructure was hit. Russian Telegram channels claimed the missile struck an underground gas facility in Striy, roughly 60 kilometers south of Lviv.
The Oreshnik system was first used in November 2024, when Russia fired it at a weapons plant in the city of Dnepr in what Moscow called a successful combat test.
Putin later announced the missile had entered mass production. By late 2025, Oreshnik units were deployed to Belarus.
Putin has described the Oreshnik “Hazel Shrub” as a weapon without equal anywhere in the world, comparing its destructive power to that of a falling meteor. He says it travels at 10 times the speed of sound, and carries dozens of homing warheads capable of striking multiple targets simultaneously.
Western analysts have said that it could be capable of flying for up to 3,400 miles. Each warhead can deliver the equivalent of tons of high explosive force.
“Anything located in the strike center is obliterated into elemental particles, reduced to dust,” Putin said.
On Friday, Moscow claimed no existing air-defense system can intercept the Oreshnik – a claim that Western insiders viewed with skepticism.
Moscow made similar claims about a previous hypersonic system. The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile was invincible, according to Moscoa. In 2023, Ukrainian forces shot down seven, usinng U.S.-supplied Patriot surface-to-air missile systems.
“That showed the truth behind the hype,” one defense insider told Soldier of Fortune.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused one another of weaponizing winter.
Ukraine has increased its own aerial campaign, launching an above-average number of drones against Russian targets during the first week of 2026. In Russia’s Belgorod region, more than 500,000 people were left without power or heat after utility infrastructure was hit, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Nearly 200,000 residents also lost access to water.
For now, Moscow appears to have paused further retaliation.
“The objectives of the strike have been achieved,” the Defense Ministry said.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
