⚠️ President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - full statement 2024.11.21 - Part 1

"I would like to inform the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, citizens of our country, our friends around the world, as well as those who continue to harbor illusions about the possibility of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, about the events that are taking place today in the area of the Special Military Operation, namely after the use of Western-made long-range weapons on our territory.

Continuing the course of escalation of the conflict provoked by the West in the Ukraine, the United States and their NATO allies have previously announced that they are giving permission for the use of their long-range precision weapons systems on the territory of the Russian Federation. Experts are well aware, and the Russian side has repeatedly stressed this, that it is impossible to use such weapons without the direct participation of military specialists from the countries producing such weapons.

On November 19, six ATACMS tactical missiles manufactured by the United States and on November 21, during a combined missile attack by Storm Shadow systems manufactured by the United Kingdom and HIMARS manufactured by the United States, strikes were carried out on military facilities in the territory of the Russian Federation - in the Bryansk and Kursk regions. Since that moment, as we have repeatedly stressed earlier, the regional conflict provoked by the West in the Ukraine has acquired elements of a global nature. Our air defense systems repelled these attacks. As a result, the goals that were obviously set by the enemy have not been achieved.

The fire that arose at the ammunition depot in the Bryansk region from the fall of ATACMS missile fragments was eliminated, there were no casualties and no serious damage. In the Kursk region, an attack was carried out on one of the command posts of our North grouping. As a result of the attack and anti-aircraft combat, unfortunately, there are injured, dead and wounded from among the personnel of the external security units of the facility and maintenance personnel. The command and operational staff of the control center was not injured and carries out in the normal mode the management of the actions of our troops to destroy and expel enemy units from Kursk region.

I would like to emphasize once again that the use of such weapons by the enemy is not able to influence the course of hostilities in the zone of the Special Military Operation. Our troops are successfully advancing along the entire line of contact. All the tasks that we set for ourselves will be solved.

In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on November 21 of this year, the Russian Armed Forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the military-industrial complex of the Ukraine. In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium—range missile systems was tested, in this case with a ballistic missile in non-nuclear hypersonic equipment. Our rocket scientists called it 'Oreshnik' (Hazel). The tests were successful, the launch goal was achieved. On the territory of the Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, was hit one of the largest and most famous industrial complexes since the Soviet Union times, which still produces rocket technology and other weapons.

We are developing medium- and shorter-range missiles as a response to the US plans to produce and deploy medium- and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. We believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext. Today, the United States not only produces such equipment, but, as we can see, during the training of its troops, they have worked out the issues of transferring their promising missile systems to different regions of the world, including Europe. Moreover, during the exercises they conduct training on their use.