Russia's unprecedented attack on Ukraine in the early hours on Thursday left the peace-loving world in a state of shock again, as there was a hope that an amicable solution could be found to the war with the incoming US administration in January next year.
It was the first time an intermediate-range hypersonic missile had been used in combat ever in a war: at first, even the US was not sure what it really was; it was President Zelensky of Ukraine, who speculated its nature, referring to its altitude and speed; a grainy video footage showed the missiles hitting four targets simultaneously that were in close proximity to each other at lightning speed.
As the military experts resorted to a guessing game about the type of the weapon used, President Putin declared on Thursday evening that Russia was behind it and the missiles managed to hit multiple targets simultaneously, while evading the existing anti-missile defence systems; the images captured by the Ukrainians showed just that.
Hypersonic missiles are classified as projectiles that go at a speed of Mach 5 - five times faster than the speed of sound - or more. The speed of sound in the air is about 1235 km/hour at 15°C, temperature.
Due to their sheer speed, the existing anti-missile systems cannot detect them and respond in kind; they cover vast distances in a short time that in turn makes time available for detection and interception by anti-air defence systems very small; by the time these systems make calculations, the missiles are already on the targets. This is exactly what happened in Ukraine on Thursday.
Although a couple of missiles hit the intended targets in a specific town in Ukraine, the impact seemed to be pretty moderate; it implies the fact that Russia deliberately put relatively small warheads into these missiles to minimize the damage - to people and infrastructure in the region in question; Russia just wanted to send a message to its foes in Europe and the US that Russia is not a country to be messed with.
In addition, Russia said the it had earmarked a certain base in Europe that is a storehouse for the weapons that were used against Russia for attack, if the Western missiles ever hit the Russian interior; Ukraine fired a few missiles from the US and UK for an attack in Russia for which Russia reciprocated with an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Although it was not an ICBM - Inter Continental Ballistic Missile - as first thought, Russia still informed the US about the launch, half an hour before the firing.
The latest escalation caused some concerns in the energy markets; prices of both WTI and Brent rose slightly after the news and so did the price of LNG, liquified natural gas. The volatility in the Middle East, meanwhile, gradually pales into insignificance, as the threat by Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz is not possible in the current circumstances: on one hand, Iran has lost its key players in the Middle East - Hamas and Hezbollah; on the other hand, Iranian economy is really in bad shape, according to its own president.
In this context, the prices of oil and gases are going to be determined by the two usual factors - supply and demand. The conflict in the Middle East no longer a major factor as long as Israel and Iran confront each other in a major escalation.
Since there is evidence of markets having enough crude oil stocks at present, it is inevitable that the prices will dip again in such a way that the rate of fall may be determined by the rising price of LNG at a time when the northern hemisphere enters the coldest part of the year.
