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Russia Attacks Ukraine with New Oreshnik Ballistic Missile
- Jennifer Jett & Yuliya Talmazan | NBC News
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
Moscow said the overnight strike was in response to an alleged Ukrainian drone strike on a residence used by President Vladimir Putin, which the U.S. and others said did not happen.
Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with a new hypersonic ballistic missile, only its second use of an advanced weapon it says can travel up to 10 times the speed of sound and is unstoppable by air defenses.
Though capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, the Oreshnik missile can also carry conventional warheads, as in this attack. Analysts have questioned the weapon's utility, and its deployment appeared to be the Kremlin's latest attempt to send a threatening message to Kyiv and the West with peace talks stalled.
The Russian Defense Ministry said early Friday that it had carried out the “massive strike” against critically important targets in response to an alleged Ukrainian drone strike late last year on a residence used by President Vladimir Putin.
The United States and others have rejected the Kremlin’s claims, saying the residence was not targeted. Ukraine has dismissed it as a “lie” intended to distract from Russia’s reluctance to agree to a deal to end its nearly four-year war.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, said it was the first time his city was hit by a ballistic missile. "This is a new level of threat — not only for Ukraine, but also for the security of Europe," he said in a video message on Telegram.
The Russian attack was conducted using long-range, high-precision weapons based on land and at sea, the defense ministry said in a statement, including the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system.
The targets included facilities involved in the production of drones used in the alleged attack on Putin’s residence, as well as energy infrastructure “supporting the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” the ministry said, adding that “the objectives of the strike were achieved.”
“Any terrorist actions by the criminal Ukrainian regime will continue to be met with a response,” the ministry said.
In addition to the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the nationwide attack involved nearly 250 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles. At least four people, including a paramedic, died in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
He called for a global response, especially from the United States, "whose signals Russia truly pays attention to."
The strike was criticized by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany as "escalatory and unacceptable," the U.K. said in a readout of a joint call.
While Russia presented what it said was evidence of the alleged attack on Putin’s residence on the shore of Lake Valdai in the northern Russian region of Novgorod, it failed to convince observers.
Though President Donald Trump initially said he was “very angry” after hearing about about the alleged attack directly from Putin, he said this week that U.S. officials had determined the residence was not targeted.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Thursday warned of “a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days.”
The conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik missile was previously used in late 2024, in what Putin said was a response to Ukraine’s use of long-range Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia for the first time.
Putin said at the time that there were “no means of intercepting” the intermediate-range ballistic missile, and that Russia would continue to test it. He bragged that the Oreshnik could reach speeds of up to Mach 10, ten times the speed of sound.
A Russian government portal describes Oreshnik's maximum strike range as 3,417 miles. It said the missile can deliver warheads with a total yield equivalent to 45 atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
Putin said last month that the Oreshnik, which means “Hazelnut tree” in Russian, had officially entered combat duty.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russia's closest ally whose territory Russia used as a launchpad for invading Ukraine in 2022, said in December that Moscow had deployed the Oreshnik missile system to his country. He didn’t say how many missiles had been deployed or give any other details.
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