Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that Moscow had tested a new medium-range missile in an attack on Ukraine, and warned that it might use this weapon against countries that allowed Kiev to use its missiles to strike Russia.
Putin said during a nationwide television speech that the Russian strike on Ukraine on Thursday came in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with American and British missiles earlier this week.
Putin announced that Russia would issue advance warnings if it launched more strikes with such a missile against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety.
He warned that American air defense systems would not be able to intercept Russian missiles.
Putin’s announcement came hours after Ukraine announced that Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight at the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine. But US officials said that the initial US assessment indicates that the strike was carried out with a medium-range ballistic missile.
Two people were injured in the attack, and an industrial facility and a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities were damaged, according to local officials.
The attack comes in a week in which tensions have repeatedly escalated, as the United States eased restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range American missiles inside Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for launching nuclear weapons.
The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that the attack on the Dnipro was launched from the Russian Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea.
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“Today, our crazy neighbor once again showed his true colors,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “How scared he is.”
The range of ballistic missiles can range from less than 500 kilometers (310 miles) to more than 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) in the case of ICBMs. The word “ballistic” refers to the shape of its trajectory.
The attack comes during a week of escalating tensions in the war.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to use longer-range U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper into Russia — a move that sparked an angry response from Moscow.
Days later, Ukraine fired several missiles at Russia, according to the Kremlin. On the same day, Putin signed a new doctrine that allows for a possible nuclear response even if it is a conventional attack on Russia by any country backed by a nuclear power.
This principle has been broadly formulated to avoid strict adherence to the use of nuclear weapons. In response, Western countries, including the United States, said Russia used irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior throughout the war to intimidate Ukraine and other countries.
They also expressed their dissatisfaction over the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops in Russia to fight against Ukraine.
Also Thursday, Russia also bombed Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, wounding 26 people, the head of the regional administration, Serhiy Lysak, said. The missile strike caused damage to an office building, at least five multi-storey residential buildings, and civilian vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that its air defense systems shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles, six HiMars missiles, and 67 drones.
The statement did not say when or where the Storm Shadows were shot down or what they were targeting. Russia announced earlier that it had shot down some missiles over the Crimean Peninsula, which it illegally annexed.
More than a thousand days into the war, Russia has the upper hand, with its largest army advancing on Donetsk and Ukrainian civilians suffering from relentless drone and missile attacks.
Analysts and observers say that easing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western missiles is unlikely to change the course of the war, but it puts the Russian military in a more vulnerable position and could complicate logistics that are crucial to the war.
Putin also warned that the move would mean Russia and NATO are at war.
“It is an important step and one that challenges and undermines the narrative that Putin was trying to prove that it was fine for Russia to rain down Iranian drones and North Korean missiles on Ukraine, but a reckless escalation of Ukraine’s use of West-supplied weapons.” “The attacks are on legitimate targets in Russia,” said Peter Ricketts, a former British national security adviser who is now a member of the House of Lords.
—Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Aamer Madani, Tara Cobb and Lolita See contributed to this report. Baldur in Washington.
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