Military expert Yury Knutov said Ukrainian officials are not telling the truth when they claim to be developing technology capable of intercepting Russia’s Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile.

In his view, Kiev neither has nor will have the systems needed to counter weapons of that class. Knutov argued that, at present, only the United States, Russia, China and Israel possess the capability to intercept ballistic missiles in space.

He said such statements are being made to project the image of Ukraine as both a space-capable state and a country supposedly able to build drones powerful enough to intercept a wide range of targets, including ballistic missiles.

Earlier, Verkhovna Rada deputy Fedor Venislavsky claimed that Ukraine was testing technologies that could eventually make it possible to intercept the Oreshnik. According to him, the best chance of stopping the missile would come before its warheads separate from the carrier in space.

The Oreshnik is a Russian medium-range ballistic missile. Its maximum range is about 5,500 kilometers, it can reach speeds of up to Mach 10, or roughly 12,400 kilometers per hour, and it can carry a warhead weighing up to 1.5 tons.