Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro yesterday in response to the US and UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, in a further escalation of the 33-month-old war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address, said Moscow struck a Ukrainian military facility with a new ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik” (the hazel) and warned that more could follow.
“A regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character,” Putin said in an address to the nation carried by state television after 8pm Moscow time (1700 GMT).
A US official said that Washington was pre-notified by Russia shortly before its strike, while another said they had briefed Kyiv and other close allies in recent days to prepare for the possible use of such a weapon.
Earlier yesterday, Kyiv said that Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM ), a weapon designed for long-distance nuclear strikes and never before used in war, though US officials said it was an intermediate range ballistic missile that has a smaller range.
Regardless of its classification, the latest strike highlighted rapidly rising tensions in the past several days.
Ukraine fired US and British missiles at targets inside Russia this week despite warnings by Moscow that it would see such action as a major escalation.
“Today there was a new Russian missile. All the characteristics – speed, altitude – are (of an) intercontinental ballistic (missile). An expert (investigation) is currently underway,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video statement.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry urged the international community to react swiftly to the use of what it said was “the use by Russia of a new type of weaponry.”
Notably, a group of glowing projectiles could be seen plummeting to the ground from the night sky in a video published by Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian military charity. It said the video was of Dnipro overnight.
The Nato military alliance did not respond to a request for comment. The US European Command said it had nothing on the reported use of an ICBM and referred questions to the US Department of Defense.
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