WASHINGTON, November 28. /TASS/. The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is unlikely to go for a significant increase in military aid to Ukraine in its last months in office after Russia's use of the Oreshnik missile, Ian Proud, a retired British diplomat and former economic counsellor at the British Embassy in Moscow (2014 - 2019), said in an article for the American news outlet Responsible Statecraft.

The expert emphasized that "Russia has something that the West does not have — the sovereign power and the political will to act unilaterally." One manifestation of this, according to Proud, is Russia's use of the Oreshnik missile. "The potential future use of Oreshnik will render ATACMS and Storm Shadow as battle-losing capabilities," Proud added.

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pro-ATACMS advocates have largely fallen silent since the deployment of Oreshnik," the retired diplomat emphasized.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 21 that the United States and its NATO allies had earlier announced that they would authorize Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons to hit inside Russia, after which American and British missiles struck Russian military facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions. He said that Russia responded to those attacks by firing Russia's newest Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile with a non-nuclear warhead at a Ukrainian defense industry facility, the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk). The Russian leader emphasized that the West's provocative policies could have dire consequences if they further escalate the conflict.