• AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Well yes we do, ICBMs are generally associated with nukes because their sheer cost normally makes them impractical for standard explosive payloads.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        3 days ago

        If it even is an ICBM. Ukraine says it’s an ICBM, and they’re 90% confident about that. The US thinks it’s an IRBM, which given the range involved, would make more sense. If it’s an ICBM, then Russia did it just out of spite.

        • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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          2 days ago

          Spite, or to make the point that they have nukes and the capability to deliver them. An ICBM - or an IRBM for that matter - evokes nuclear fears, which is why the non-nuclear part needed to be clarified. They’ve been making threats about that recently, so I suspect this is Russia’s version of passive-agressive.

        • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          From wikipedia:

          In principle there is very little difference between a low-performance ICBM and a high-performance IRBM, because decreasing payload mass can increase the range over the ICBM threshold.

          Sounds like different militaries just classifying things differently

          • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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            2 days ago

            Also the range is the only thing that’s different between them, they can both carry nukes. I suspect they did this to make that point. They want Ukraine to be afraid of launching deep attacks.

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    3 days ago

    Why though? A warning to the west?
    Cause last time I checked, Russia and Ukraine are on the same continent, making this a huge waste.

    • Saleh@feddit.orgOP
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      3 days ago

      Probably a warning in response to letting Ukraine use western missiles deep into russian territory.

    • Saleh@feddit.orgOP
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      3 days ago

      While i appreciate the whish that Russian nukes don’t work, it would be exceptional for none of their 10.000 or so to work. Even if only 1 in 1.000 work, that is still enough to annihilate some 10-20 million people or so.