Russia fired an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday in response to the West allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced weapons, in a further escalation of the 33-month-old war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the attack in a televised address to the nation on Thursday night and said that Moscow successfully struck a Ukrainian military facility with a new ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik” and warned that more could follow, according to Reuters.
“A regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said an attack on Ukraine with a new type of ballistic missile was a “clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war.”
Zelensky said Putin’s acknowledgment of the attack provided “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace” in a post on X/Twitter on Thursday.
❗ Сьогодні вночі росіяни, як заявили у @KpsZSU, вперше вдарили по Україні міжконтинентальною балістичною ракетою середньої дальності. На відео зафіксований ранок 21 листопада у Дніпрі. pic.twitter.com/DR5bLyzbHC
— Повернись живим (@BackAndAlive) November 21, 2024
Intercontinental missile or intermediate-range?
Putin said that the strike was a test of the new missile system and that “a ballistic missile equipped with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead was used,” the Kremlin leader said, as reported by The Moscow Times.
Earlier on Thursday, 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.
Ukraine’s air force said the missile targeted Dnipro, a large city in central-eastern Ukraine. It was fired from the Russian region of Astrakhan, more than 700 km away. Due to the threat of ballistic missiles, air raid sirens sounded around Ukraine early on Thursday. Later, a number of Russian Tu-95MS bomber aircraft were launched.
The Ukrainian Air Force did not specify what kind of warhead the missile had or what type of missile it was, and there was no suggestion it was nuclear-armed.
Notably, US officials said it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile that has a smaller range of 3,000–5,500 km., according to Reuters.
A US official said that Russia briefly notified Washington shortly before its strike.
“The United States was pre-notified briefly before the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels,” Defense Department Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a briefing on Thursday. “We’ve seen this type of dangerous, reckless rhetoric before from President Putin. What we’re focused on is continuing to support Ukraine with what it needs.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov additionally reported that Russia notified the US through the Russian National Center for Nuclear Risk Reduction.
“The warning was sent in an automatic notification mode 30 minutes before the launch,” he told Russian media, as reported by TASS.
Another US official said Russia had briefed Kyiv and other close allies in recent days to prepare for the possible use of such a weapon, according to Reuters.
In any sense, Russia’s strike highlights the ratcheting tensions between the two countries, especially after the events of the last few 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. Russia claims that “Oreshnik” was a response to these earlier attacks.
Major Russian politicians responded to the attack, seemingly asserting that this escalation was justified. In a post on X/Twitter, former Russian president and current Deputy Chair of the Security Council, Dimitry Medvedev, indicated that the strike was what the West wanted.
So, that’s what you wanted? Well, you’ve damn well got it!A hypersonic ballistic missile attack pic.twitter.com/lsKQHhMnif
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) November 21, 2024
Ukraine urges international condemnation
“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 Zelensky said in a video statement.
“Putin has taken both of these steps, ignoring everyone in the world who calls for de-escalation,” Zelensky said in a statement on his Telegram channel. “He doesn’t care what China, Brazil, European countries, America, or any other nation in the world demands.
“Putin alone started this war—an absolutely unprovoked war—and he is doing everything to prolong it for more than a thousand days now.”
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.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia likely possesses a handful of the “experimental” intermediate-range ballistic missiles used in Thursday’s strike.
“Whether it was an ICBM or an IRBM, the range isn’t the important factor,” Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo University specializing in missile technology and nuclear strategy, told Reuters.
“The fact that it carried a MIRVed (Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) payload is much more significant for signaling purposes and is the reason Russia opted for it. This payload is exclusively associated with nuclear-capable missiles.”
The attack targeted enterprises and critical infrastructure in Dnipro, the air force said. Dnipro was a missile-making center in the Soviet era. Ukraine has expanded its military industry during the war, but kept its whereabouts secret.
The air force did not say what the missile targeted or whether it had caused any damage, but regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the missile attack damaged an industrial enterprise and set off fires in Dnipro. Two people were hurt.
Some officials claim that the missile would not be able to be shot down by Ukrainian forces, even with Western equipment.
“Neither the US nor other countries of the world currently possess air defense systems capable of intercepting Russia’s new hypersonic missiles,” said former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl on her Telegram channel. Kneissl notably has a close relationship with Vladimir Putin and moved to Russia in 2023.
“While the Biden administration builds up an explosive legacy of missiles for the next tenant of the White House, Russia responded today to the many recent provocations by NATO,” Kneissl added. “There is more in the Russian arsenal than many believe.”
Ukrainska Pravda, a Kyiv-based media outlet, had cited anonymous sources saying the missile was an RS-26 Rubezh, a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,800 km, according to the Arms Control Association.
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.
Some military experts said the missile launch if confirmed, could be seen as an act of deterrence by Moscow following Kyiv’s strikes into Russia with Western weapons this week after restrictions on such strikes were lifted.
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