Pavel Podvig, director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project, stressed that this kind of a strike ‘might have a value as a signal’.He wrote in a thread on X that one must be ‘skeptical and cautious’ about the claims, adding: ‘Regarding the “intercontinental” claim, the distance from Kapustin Yar to Dnipro is about 800 km. It is not an intercontinental range.’
He added later: ‘Using these kinds of missiles, whether RS-26 or a true ICBM, in a conventional role does not make a lot of sense because of their relatively low accuracy and high cost. But this kind of a strike might have a value as a signal.’
A signal that ‘our ICBMs still work’? (without the nukes)