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Several Oreshnik missiles equivalent to nuclear strike, do not harm environment — Putin

The Russian president still reiterated that such a strike is not nuclear, because it is highly accurate and not equipped with a nuclear explosive device

ASTANA, November 28. /TASS/. The simultaneous use of several Oreshnik missiles is comparable in strength to a nuclear strike, but it does not contaminate the environment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, answering journalists' questions.

"If you use several such systems in one strike at once - two, three, or four systems - it will be comparable in strength to a nuclear strike. But it is not nuclear because it is a) highly accurate and b) it is not equipped with a nuclear explosive device. It does not contaminate the environment. But it will be comparable in strength," Putin said.

On November 21 the Russian leader said that the United States and its NATO allies had earlier said they were authorizing the use of long-range high accuracy guided weapons, after which US and British missiles attacked Russian military facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions. Russia responded to these attacks by using the newest non-nuclear Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles for the first time. They were launched at a facility of Ukraine's defense-industrial complex, the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepr.