Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin says new hypersonic medium-range missile launched on Ukraine after ICBM claim
Vladimir Putin has said that Russia used a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile to attack a Ukrainian military facility, in what the Russian president claimed was a warning to Western nations arming Kyiv.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier accused Mr Putin’s forces of using his country as a missile testing ground, after he warned that Russia had struck Dnipro with a missile “matching the speed and altitude” of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
While that would have marked the first time Moscow had used such missiles in Ukraine, Mr Putin said later on Thursday in a nationwide TV address that Russia had actually conducted combat tests of the mid-range “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile system.
With tensions escalating, Mr Putin said the Oreshnik had been fired in response to the aggressive actions of Nato countries, after Ukraine used US and British-made long-range missiles to strike targets on internationally recognised Russian territory for the first time this week.
Following Thursday’s strike, Mr Putin sought to threaten Kyiv’s allies by claiming that Moscow could hit the military installations of any country whose weapons were used against Russia.
