The Russian armed forces launched a “massive strike” on Ukraine, including with the mobile ground-based medium-range missile system ‘Oreshnik’, reported bb.lv. The reaction from Riga was swift.
The Ukrainian Air Command 'West' stated that the speed of the missile was 13,000 km per hour. The extent of the destruction on the ground has not yet been reported.
In the middle of the day, Latvia's President Edgars Rinkēvičs commented on the strike.
“USA, Ukraine, and Europe want peace and tirelessly work to prepare a deal, Russia responds with Oreshnik. This is quite telling about Russia’s readiness to end the war. Nothing,” Rinkēvičs wrote on X.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>US, Ukraine and Europe want peace and work tirelessly to prepare a deal, Russia responds with Oreshnik. Quite telling about Russia’s readiness to end the war. None.
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 9, 2026
The tweet from the President of Latvia appeared an hour after the tweet from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he, among other things, stated:
“A clear response from the world is necessary... Russia must receive signals that its obligation is to focus on diplomacy and feel the consequences every time it bets on murder and the destruction of infrastructure.”
