Russia’s Lavrov says launch of Oreshnik missile unsettled Zelenskyy

MOSCOW: Moscow’s launch of the new hypersonic missile Oreshnik in response to Western approval of strikes deep into Russian territory unsettled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

Speaking at a news conference in Brest, Belarus, Lavrov said Zelenskyy “directly accused his Western allies of leaving him defenceless in the face of such actions by Russia,“ calling the response “a potentially valuable outcome.”

Lavrov stressed that without the direct participation of the West, not a single missile would have been launched.

He said the Joe Biden administration’s authorisation for Ukraine to hit Russian territory will leave “the worst possible legacy” for the United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said in response to the US and its NATO allies’ authorisation of the use of their long-range high-precision weapons for strikes inside Russia, Moscow struck a missile factory in Ukraine’s city of Dnipro with a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile Oreshnik.

Ukraine attacked Russia’s Bryansk region with six US-made ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles on Tuesday, and the next day it used British Storm Shadow and US HIMARS systems on the Kursk region.

Lavrov said two key documents will be reviewed by the Supreme State Council of the Union States -- a security concept and a draft treaty on bilateral security guarantees with Belarus.

“The first is the security concept of the Union State and the second is the draft of a bilateral interstate treaty on security guarantees.

The content of the updated nuclear doctrine is fully synchronised with these two Russian-Belarusian documents,” he said.