ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 5 (Reuters) – A Russian amusement park in St Petersburg has named one of its rides the “Oreshnik”, after a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that Moscow has fired three times at Ukraine.
Visitors to the rocket-shaped attraction are repeatedly lifted into the air and plunged into sudden stomach-churning drops.
Not everyone is pleased with the name, however.
“I don’t think it fits. The best name for it would be ‘Rocket’… I don’t understand what it’s got to do with the Oreshnik – who came up with that name?” one woman said.
A man visiting the park on Friday told Reuters: “A children’s attraction should have a children’s name, that’s my personal opinion.”
The Oreshnik – which Russia first fired against Ukraine in 2024, and most recently last month – has a range of over 5,000 km (3,100 miles). President Vladimir Putin has said it is impossible to intercept, though Western experts have questioned that assertion.
Putin told reporters on Thursday that Russia had not yet used the Oreshnik against Ukraine in real combat conditions, but only tried it out to observe the results. He said this would inform Moscow’s decisions about the full-scale use of the weapon in future, including against urban targets.
(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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