Putin Challenges The U.S. To A Missile ‘Duel,’ Zelenskyy Responds By Calling Him ‘A Dumb—‘

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin challenged the U.S. to a missile “duel” at a marathon conference in Moscow.

Putin suggested Moscow’s newly unveiled Oreshnik missile should be put to a test with Western defenses, further insisting the Oreshnik could not be shot down by any anti-missile defenses.

Putin, speaking in Russian, said at the conference, “If the experts in the West think so, well, let them come up with a proposal to us, and to the U.S. They can suggest a kind of technological experiment, a kind of high-tech fighting duel of the 21st century.”

He continued that Russia and the U.S. could agree upon a target in Kyiv, where Ukraine would “concentrate all of their air defense and anti-missile defense.”

He stated, “We will strike it with Oreshnik and we will see what’s going to happen. We are willing to conduct such an experiment.”

Putin further touted that the move would be beneficial for the U.S. in terms of information the Pentagon could gather from the strike. He said, “So let’s conduct this duel and look at the outcome. It’s going to be interesting because it’s going to be useful both to us and the American side.”

Russia has boasted the Oreshnik to be a new class of weapon in the Ukrainian war. It was initially fired in late November when it hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Putin claims that the new missile flies ten times the speed of sound with a range that allows it to hit any target in Europe.

In response to Putin’s comments at the conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called him a “dumba–,” in an X post on Thursday evening, writing, “People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’.”

Asked by moderators at the event how Russia perseveres “when the world is going crazy,” Putin responded, “When everything is calm, measured, stable, we are bored. This is when everyone wants action.”

Despite Putin’s violent and aggressive rhetoric, he stated that he was open to communication with Donald Trump when he takes office in 2025. “I’m ready for that, of course, at any time, and I’m ready to meet him if he wants to,” he said.

The pair last met in 2019 at the G20 summit in Japan.

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