KYIV: Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile overnight at a target in Ukraine near the border with NATO-member Poland, in what Kyiv’s European allies on Friday described as an attempt to intimidate them from supporting Ukraine.
It was only the second time Russia has fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine, and came amid a night of air attacks that Ukrainian authorities said also killed four people in Kyiv, knocked out power in the capital and damaged the Qatari embassy there.
The Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) designed to project power across Europe and which Moscow says is impossible to intercept, can carry nuclear warheads although there was no suggestion it had done so. A senior Ukrainian official said it appeared to be carrying inert “dummy” warheads.
The strike appeared aimed at cowing Ukraine at a crucial juncture in talks to end the war, analysts said. It happened after a week of setbacks for Russia, including the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow said it fired the Oreshnik missile in response to what it calls an attempted drone attack on one of Putin’s residences last month, which Ukraine denies and the United States has said did not happen.
“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X.
“It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” he added. “Putin uses an IRBM near EU and NATO border in response to his own hallucinations — this is truly a global threat. And it demands global responses.”
