Ukraine war: What is RS-26 Rubezh, a missile Russia has threatened to strike Kyiv with?

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine will soon mark its third year. Russia has now threatened to strike Ukraine with a massive new missile in revenge for the use of Western weapons against its territory, a report by The Telegraph on Thursday (Nov 20) said.

Citing local media, the report said that the Russian military was preparing to fire the RS-26 Rubezh missiles at Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv.

Earlier on Wednesday the US and a few other Western countries shut down their embassies in Kyiv for security reasons. The closure came a day after Ukraineused American missiles to hit a target inside Russia.

The US later announced that itreopened its embassy late Wednesday.

What is theRS-26 Rubezh missile?

A report by RBC-Ukraine on Thursday said that theRS-26 Rubezhis a Russian mobile ground-based strategic missile system equipped with an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The RS-26 has been built on the design of the Yars project (RS-24 Yars) with upgraded manoeuvrable warheads designed to penetrate missile defence systems.

The missile can carry a thermonuclear warhead and can also be used with the hypersonic Avangard glide vehicle, the RBC-Ukraine report added.

The first successful test of theRS-26 Rubezh took place in May 2012. The report pointed out that the missile was supposed to enter service in 2015 with a deployment planned two years later.

But in 2018, it was announced that the missile system had beenexcluded from Russia's armament program through 2027.

Citing public sources, the report revealed a few features of the missile- a launch weight of 40-50 tons, a range of up to 6,000 kilometres (Kms), and the warhead-four separate units with a total capacity of 1.2 megatons.

Missile has not been used in combat before

Citing Western missile experts, The Telegraph report on Thursday said that theRS-26 Rubezh has not been used in combat before. The missile is said to fly at five times the speed of sound- making it difficult for Ukraine's US-supplied Patriot missile systems to shoot down.

A Moscow-based newspaper said that Russia was readying to launch the RS-26 missiles from a site in Astrakhan by the Caspian Sea.

(With inputs from agencies)