Nato says new Russian missile will not change course of Ukraine war
The experimental intermediate-range missile Russia fired at Ukraine will not affect the course of the war nor Nato’s support for Kyiv, a spokesperson for the alliance said.
Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah was quoted by AFP as describing the Russian strike on Dnipro on Thursday as “yet another example of Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian cities”, adding:
Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato Allies from supporting Ukraine.
Key events
North Korean leader Kim Jong–un has accused the US of ramping up tension and provocations, saying the Korean peninsula has never faced such risks of nuclear war as now, state media said on Friday.
In a speech at a military exhibition on Thursday in Pyongyang, Kim said his previous experience of negotiations with Washington only highlighted its “aggressive and hostile” policy against Pyongyang, Reuters reported outlet KCNA as saying.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying:
Never before have the warring parties on the Korean peninsula faced such a dangerous and acute confrontation that it could escalate into the most destructive thermonuclear war.
We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States, but what we became certain of from the result is not the superpower’s willingness to coexist, but its thorough stance of power and aggressive and hostile policy toward us that can never change.
Kim’s speech came amid international criticism over increasingly deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, with North Korea having reportedly sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
The US believes Russia fired a never-before-fielded intermediate-range ballistic missile in its attack on Ukraine, an escalation that analysts say could have implications for European missile defence, Reuters is reporting.
The US military said the Russian missile’s design was based on the design of Russia’s longer-range RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile was experimental and Russia likely possessed only a handful of them, officials said.
Ukraine’s air force initially said the missile was an ICBM, sparking worries of a major escalation in the war. While launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) sends a less threatening signal, the incident could still set off alarms and Moscow notified Washington briefly ahead of the launch, US officials said.
The Pentagon said the missile was fired with a conventional warhead but added that Moscow could modify it if it wanted. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said:
It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Kyiv and 2am in Moscow. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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Vladimir Putin said Russia fired an experimental ballistic missile at a military site in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning. The Russian president, speaking during an unannounced televised address to the nation, said the new missile was called Oreshnik [the hazel] and that its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”.
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Putin appeared to directly threaten the US and UK, who earlier this week allowed Ukraine to fire western-made Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets, he said during his televised address on Thursday night, adding that Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.
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The new intermediate range ballistic missile was part of a wider salvo of nine missiles fired from the Astrakhan region of Russia between 5am and 7am on Thursday. Six of the missiles were intercepted by Ukraine’s air force but the new ballistic missile was not stopped. The missile was said to have hit “without consequences”, Ukraine’s air force said, though it added that complete information about victims had yet to be received.
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Ukraine’s air force had initially claimed Russia had fired a longer-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at Dnipro. US and UK sources indicated that they believed the missile was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US. Volodymyr Zelenskyy later softened the claim to say the missile fired had “all the parameters” of an ICBM in terms of speed and altitude of flight.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called for a “strong” international response to the Russian ballistic missile strike, describing it as a major step-up in the “scale and brutality” of the war. In a statement after Putin’s address, Zelenskyy said the strike was “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”, adding that “response is needed. Pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength.”
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The UN secretary general António Guterres’s spokesperson said Russia’s use of a new intermediate range ballistic missile is “yet another concerning and worrying development. “All of this [is] going in the wrong direction,” Stéphane Dujarric said as he called on all parties to de-escalate the conflict and “to protect civilians, not hit civilian targets or critical civilian infrastructure”.
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A Nato spokesperson said the missile will not affect the course of the war nor the western alliance’s support for Kyiv. Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah was quoted as describing the Russian strike on Dnipro as “yet another example of Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian cities”.
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Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, appeared to inadvertently reveal some details about the strike during a live press briefing earlier on Thursday. A hot mic captured Zakharova’s phone conversation with an unidentified caller who appears to disclose that the strike targeted the Yuzhmash military facility in Dnipro.
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The US was notified by Russia shortly before its strike on Dnipro, according to a US official. Russia is required by a treaty to inform the US of the launch of certain kinds of ballistic missiles, in the hopes of preventing an escalatory ladder that could lead to an all-out nuclear war. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia notified the US 30 minutes before the strike through the US’s Nuclear Threat Reduction Center.
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The White House said Russia is to blame for “escalating at every turn” in its war in Ukraine, including in its decision to involve North Korean troops. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added that the US does not see “any reason” to modify its nuclear posture or doctrine in reaction to changes announced by Russia.
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Joe Biden’s decision to lift restrictions on Ukraine firing US-made long-range missiles into Russian territory was in response to North Korea’s involvement in the war, Reuters reported, citing sources. This shift in US policy also took on added urgency following the presidential election win of Donald Trump, who is deeply skeptical of US support for Ukraine, it said.
The UK is now “directly involved” in the Ukraine war after its Storm Shadow missiles were used to strike targets inside Russia, the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, said earlier on Thursday.
Kelin, in an interview with Sky News, said Britain’s decision to allow Ukraine to use its missiles on Russian targets had dragged the UK into the conflict. He said:
Absolutely, Britain and UK is now directly involved in this war, because this firing cannot happen without Nato staff, British staff as well.
He added:
The US administration, support by France and the UK, has made a deliberate decision to make these strikes, which seriously escalates the situation, and it can bring a collision between the nuclear powers.
Downing Street, responding to Kelin’s comments, said the UK government would not be “deterred or distracted by commentary from Vladimir Putin or the Russian ambassador”.
Nato says new Russian missile will not change course of Ukraine war
The experimental intermediate-range missile Russia fired at Ukraine will not affect the course of the war nor Nato’s support for Kyiv, a spokesperson for the alliance said.
Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah was quoted by AFP as describing the Russian strike on Dnipro on Thursday as “yet another example of Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian cities”, adding:
Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato Allies from supporting Ukraine.
Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, has said that the Russian attack on Dnipro shows Kyiv needs continued support until the end of the war.
Russia’s attack on Dnipro is a sign that we must support Ukraine until it wins this war against Russia’s aggression, which is a threat to Ukraine, Europe, and the world.
Russia’s use of new missile a ‘worrying development’, says UN chief’s spokesperson
Russia’s use of a new intermediate range ballistic missile to strike Ukraine is “yet another concerning and worrying development”, the spokesperson for the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said.
“All of this [is] going in the wrong direction,” Stéphane Dujarric said as he called on all parties to de-escalate the conflict and “to protect civilians, not hit civilian targets or critical civilian infrastructure”.
What we want to see is an end to this conflict in line with General Assembly resolutions, international law, and territorial integrity.
Here’s a clip from Vladimir Putin’s address on Thursday confirming that Russia fired an experimental ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro earlier that morning.
The Russian president appeared to directly threaten the US and UK, who earlier this week allowed Ukraine to fire western-made Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles into Russia.
The new ballistic missile was called Oreshnik [the hazel], Putin said, and its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”. He said Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.
The “experimental” Russian ballistic missile fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro this morning carried multiple warheads, CNN is reporting, citing sources.
According to the outlet, the weapon is known as a “multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicle (Mirv)” which carries a series of warheads that can each target a specific location, allowing one ballistic missile to launch a larger attack.
Thursday’s missile attack was not armed with nuclear warheads, but it used a weapon designed for nuclear delivery to instead launch conventional weapons, CNN writes.
Tom Karako, the director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told the outlet that it was likely the first time a Mirv has been used in combat.
The use of this type of missile armed with conventional warheads is an escalation of Russia’s nuclear sabre-rattling, Karako said, which includes Vladimir Putin’s recent updating of its nuclear doctrine.
Biden lifted missile ban in response to North Korean involvement in Ukraine war – report
A decision by the US president, Joe Biden, to lift restrictions on Ukraine firing US-made long-range missiles into Russian territory was in response to North Korea’s involvement in the war, Reuters is reporting, citing sources.
Ukraine fired a series of US-made Atacms missiles into Russia earlier this week after the Biden administration lifted restrictions on their use.
For months, Biden had resisted pleas from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to ease limits on the use of long-range US missiles.
But Russia’s decision to deploy North Korean soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region represented a major escalation that demanded a response, a senior US official and two others sources told the news agency.
This shift in US policy also took on added urgency following the presidential election win of Donald Trump, who is deeply skeptical of US support for Ukraine.
The decision could help to “Trump-proof” parts of Biden’s Ukraine agenda by strengthening Ukraine’s position in case they lose US support, a source told Reuters.
Prior to Vladimir Putin’s televised address confirming the use of an experimental ballistic missile, the UK accused the Russian president of dramatically escalating the war in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Russia’s use of a ballistic missile is “another example of reckless behaviour” by Moscow. The spokesperson added:
This is obviously deeply concerning. It is another example of reckless behaviour from Russia, which only serves to strengthen our resolve in terms of standing by Ukraine for as long as it takes.
Here are some images from Ukraine’s emergency services showing the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on the city of Dnipro early on Thursday.
Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo University who specialises in missile technology and nuclear strategy, said the significance of the Oreshnik missile strike was that it appeared to carry a type of payload that “is exclusively associated with nuclear-capable missiles”.
A US official told the Guardian that Russia may have used the weapon as an attempt to “intimidate Ukraine and its supporters” or attract public attention, but that the weapon would not be a “gamechanger” in the conflict.
“Russia likely possesses only a handful of these experimental missiles,” the official said.
Ukraine used US Atacms missiles to target what it said was a weapons depot in Russia’s south-western Bryansk region on Monday, and fired a salvo of Storm Shadow missiles on Wednesday at a command post in Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces hold a small bridgehead of territory inside Russia.
Ukraine had previously used both weapons to strike targets inside its internationally recognised borders, but had been lobbying the US and UK for months to allow it to strike airfields, bases and depots deeper inside Russia.
Both sides are stepping up their military efforts in the near three-year-long war ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump on 20 January. The Republican president-elect has said he wants to end the war, though it is unclear how he proposes to do so, and each side is hoping to improve its battlefield position before he takes office.
Putin ‘has no interest in peace’, says Zelenskyy as he urges ‘strong’ international reaction
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the use of an experimental ballistic missile on Ukraine is “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”.
The Ukrainian president says his country has “every right” to fire long-range weapons into Russia under international law in the interest of self-defence.
“The world must respond,” Zelenskyy says. He says Vladimir Putin is “spitting in the face of those in the world who genuinely want peace to be restored” and that he is “testing” the world.
Right now, there is no strong reaction from the world. Putin is very sensitive to this. He is testing you, dear partners. … He must be stopped. A lack of tough reactions to Russia’s actions sends a message that such behavior is acceptable. This is what Putin is doing.
Zelenskyy says Putin “must feel the cost of his deranged ambitions”, adding:
Response is needed. Pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength. Otherwise, there will be endless Russian strikes, threats, and destabilization—not just against Ukraine.
“True peace is worth fighting for. Action is required,” he adds.
