Russian president challenges West to "technological duel" over advanced Oreshnik missile

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a challenge to the West, suggesting a "technological duel" to test the capabilities of Russia's latest missile system, the Oreshnik.

Addressing the “Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin”, the Russian president questioned whether Western air defence and missile defence systems would be able to counter the Oreshnik, which has a striking range of up to 5,500 kilometres, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media.

In response to critiques from Western experts, Putin proposed an experiment, urging the United States to concentrate all its air and missile defence forces and see if they can intercept the Oreshnik.

"Let them call us and those in the West and the US who pay for their analysis out to conduct sort of a technological experiment and have a 21st century-style high-tech duel. Let them choose a target, say, in Kyiv, and amass their air and missile defence systems there, while we will launch an Oreshnik missile at the target. We’ll see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment," Putin said.

The Russian president further claimed that missile defence systems stationed in Romania and Poland would not be capable of reaching the Oreshnik, which he said was developed from previous Russian missile designs. "Let's imagine that our system stands at a distance of two thousand kilometers. Even the anti-missile defence missiles located on the territory of Poland will not reach it," Putin noted.

By Vafa Guliyeva