Russia attacked Ukraine with new ballistic missile, Putin says

The Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia, President Vladimir Putin said.

In a televised address to the country, the Russian president warned that U.S. air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said flies at ten times the speed of sound and which he called the Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree. He also said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are used to attack Russia.

“We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against military facilities of the countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities,” Putin said in his first comments since President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the green light this month to use U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike at limited targets inside Russia.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that Russia’s missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

“This was [a] new type of lethal capability that was deployed on the battlefield, so that was certainly of concern,” Singh said, noting that the missile could carry either conventional or nuclear warheads. The U.S. was notified ahead of the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels, she said.

The attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro came in response to Kyiv’s use of longer-range U.S. and British missiles in strikes Tuesday and Wednesday on southern Russia, Putin said. Those strikes caused a fire at an ammunition depot in Russia’s Bryansk region and killed and wounded some security services personnel in the Kursk region, he said.

“In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in kind,” the Russian president said, adding that Western leaders who are hatching plans to use their forces against Moscow should “seriously think about this.”

Putin said the Oreshnik fired Thursday struck a well-known missile factory in Dnipro. He also said Russia would issue advance warnings if it launches more strikes with the Oreshnik against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety — something Moscow hasn’t done before previous aerial attacks.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially said Russia hadn’t warned the U.S. about the coming launch of the new missile, noting that it wasn’t obligated to do so. But he later changed tack and said Moscow did issue a warning 30 minutes before the launch.

Putin’s announcement came hours after Ukraine claimed that Russia had used an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Dnipro attack, which wounded two people and damaged an industrial facility and rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, according to local officials. But American officials said an initial U.S. assessment indicated the strike was carried out with an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

The attack comes during a week of escalating tensions , as the U.S. eased restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American-made longer-range missiles inside Russia and Putin lowered the threshold for launching nuclear weapons.

The Ukrainian air force said in a statement that the Dnipro attack was launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea.

“Today, our crazy neighbor once again showed what he really is,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said hours before Putin’s address. “And how afraid he is.”

Russia was sending a message by attacking Ukraine with an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even if they are less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles, said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

“Why might you use it therefore?” Savill said. “Signaling — signaling to the Ukrainians. We’ve got stuff that outrages you. But really signaling to the West, ‘We’re happy to enter into a competition around intermediate-range ballistic missiles. P.S. These could be nuclear tipped. Do you really want to take that risk?’”

Military experts say that modern ICBMs and IRBMs are extremely difficult to intercept, although Ukraine has previously claimed to have stopped some other weapons that Russia described as “unstoppable,” including the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

David Albright, of the Washington-based think tank the Institute for Science and International Security, said he was “skeptical” of Putin’s claim, adding that Russian technology sometimes “falls short.”

He suggested Putin was “taunting the West to try to shoot it down … like a braggart boasting, taunting his enemy.”

Earlier this week, the Biden administration authorized Ukraine to use the U.S.-supplied, longer-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia — a move that drew an angry response from Moscow.

Days later, Ukraine fired several of the missiles into Russia, according to the Kremlin. The same day, Putin signed a new doctrine that allows for a potential nuclear response even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.

The doctrine is formulated broadly to avoid a firm commitment to use nuclear weapons. In response, Western countries, including the U.S., said Russia has used irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior throughout the war to intimidate Ukraine and other nations.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Russia’s formal lowering of the threshold for nuclear weapons use did not prompt any changes in U.S. doctrine.

She pushed back on concerns that the decision to allow Ukraine to use Western missiles to strike deeper inside Russia might escalate the war.

″They’re the ones who are escalating this,” she said of the Kremlin — in part because of a flood of North Korean troops sent to the region.

More than 1,000 days into war , Russia has the upper hand, with its larger army advancing in Donetsk and Ukrainian civilians suffering from relentless drone and missile strikes.

Analysts and observers say the loosening of restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western missiles is unlikely to change the course of the war, but it puts the Russian army in a more vulnerable position and could complicate the logistics that are crucial in warfare.

Putin has also warned that the move would mean that Russia and NATO are at war.

“It is an important move and it pulls against, undermines the narrative that Putin had been trying to establish that it was fine for Russia to rain down Iranian drones and North Korean missiles on Ukraine but a reckless escalation for Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons at legitimate targets in Russia,” said Peter Ricketts, a former U.K. national security adviser who now sits in the House of Lords.

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London, and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京表示，克里姆林宫周四向乌克兰发射了一枚新型中程弹道导弹，以回应基辅本周使用能够打击俄罗斯境内更深处的美国和英国导弹的行为。

俄罗斯总统在向全国发表的电视讲话中警告说，美国的防空系统将无力拦截这种新型导弹。他称这种导弹的飞行速度是音速的十倍，并将其命名为“奥列什尼克”（Oreshnik，俄语意为榛子树）。他还表示，这种导弹可能被用来攻击任何使用导弹攻击俄罗斯的乌克兰盟友。

“我们认为，我们有权对允许其使用武器攻击我们设施的国家的军事设施使用我们的武器，”普京在本月美国总统乔·拜登批准乌克兰使用美国ATACMS导弹打击俄罗斯境内有限目标后首次发表评论时说道。

五角大楼副新闻秘书萨布丽娜·辛格证实，俄罗斯的导弹是一种新型的实验性中程导弹，以RS-26“鲁别日”洲际弹道导弹为基础。

辛格表示：“这是一种部署在战场上的新型致命武器，这当然令人担忧。”她指出，该导弹可以携带常规弹头或核弹头。她说，美国已通过核风险降低渠道提前获悉此次发射。

普京表示，对乌克兰中部城市第聂伯罗的袭击是对基辅周二和周三使用美英远程导弹袭击俄罗斯南部的回应。他说，这些袭击导致俄罗斯布良斯克州的一个弹药库起火，并在库尔斯克州造成一些安全部门人员伤亡。

俄罗斯总统表示：“如果侵略行为升级，我们将果断地予以对等回应。”他还补充说，那些密谋动用武力对付莫斯科的西方领导人应该“认真考虑一下这个问题”。

普京表示，周四发射的“奥列什尼克”导弹击中了第聂伯罗一家著名的导弹工厂。他还表示，如果俄罗斯再次使用“奥列什尼克”导弹对乌克兰发动袭击，将会提前发出预警，以便平民撤离到安全地带——莫斯科此前在空袭中从未这样做过。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫最初表示，俄罗斯并未就即将发射的新型导弹向美国发出警告，并指出俄罗斯没有义务这样做。但他后来改口称，莫斯科在导弹发射前30分钟确实发出了警告。

普京发表声明的几个小时前，乌克兰方面声称俄罗斯在第聂伯罗袭击事件中使用了洲际弹道导弹。据当地官员称，袭击造成两人受伤，并损毁了一家工业设施和一家残疾人康复中心。但美国官员表示，美国初步评估显示，此次袭击使用的是中程弹道导弹。

此次袭击发生在紧张局势不断升级的一周内，美国放宽了对乌克兰在俄罗斯境内使用美国制造的远程导弹的限制，而普京降低了发射核武器的门槛。

乌克兰空军在一份声明中表示，第聂伯罗袭击事件是从俄罗斯里海沿岸的阿斯特拉罕地区发起的。

“今天，我们这个疯狂的邻居再次暴露了他的真面目，”乌克兰总统泽连斯基在普京发表讲话前几个小时说道，“以及他有多么害怕。”

伦敦智库皇家联合军种研究所军事科学主任马修·萨维尔表示，俄罗斯使用能够以极高速度释放多个弹头的中程弹道导弹攻击乌克兰，即使这种导弹的精度不如巡航导弹或短程弹道导弹，但此举意在发出某种信号。

“那么，你们为什么要这么做呢？”萨维尔说。“发出信号——向乌克兰发出信号。我们有一些让你们愤怒的东西。但实际上是向西方发出信号：‘我们乐于参与中程弹道导弹的竞争。附注：这些导弹可能携带核弹头。你们真的想冒这个险吗？’”

军事专家表示，现代洲际弹道导弹和中程弹道导弹极难拦截，尽管乌克兰此前声称拦截了一些俄罗斯称之为“无法拦截”的其他武器，包括空射型“匕首”高超音速导弹。

华盛顿智库科学与国际安全研究所的戴维·奥尔布赖特表示，他对普京的说法持“怀疑”态度，并补充说，俄罗斯的技术有时“达不到标准”。

他暗示普京是在“挑衅西方，让他们试图击落它……就像一个吹牛大王在吹嘘、挑衅他的敌人一样”。

本周早些时候，拜登政府授权乌克兰使用美国提供的远程导弹打击俄罗斯境内更远的目标——此举引发了莫斯科的强烈不满。

几天后，据克里姆林宫称，乌克兰向俄罗斯发射了数枚导弹。同一天，普京签署了一项新的核武器战略，该战略允许俄罗斯对任何受核大国支持的国家发动的常规攻击进行核反击。

该理论的制定范围很广，旨在避免明确承诺使用核武器。对此，包括美国在内的西方国家表示，俄罗斯在整个战争期间一直使用不负责任的核言论和行为来恐吓乌克兰和其他国家。

白宫新闻秘书卡琳·让-皮埃尔周四表示，俄罗斯正式降低核武器使用门槛并没有促使美国改变其军事战略。

她反驳了允许乌克兰使用西方导弹打击俄罗斯境内更深处目标可能会加剧战争的担忧。

“是他们（克里姆林宫）在加剧局势，”她说道——部分原因是朝鲜向该地区派遣了大量军队。

战争已持续1000多天，俄罗斯占据上风，其人数更多的军队在顿涅茨克推进，乌克兰平民遭受无情的无人机和导弹袭击。

分析人士和观察人士表示，放松对乌克兰使用西方导弹的限制不太可能改变战争的进程，但这会使俄罗斯军队处于更加脆弱的境地，并可能使战争中至关重要的后勤保障变得更加复杂。

普京还警告说，此举将意味着俄罗斯和北约处于战争状态。

“这是一个重要的举措，它反驳并削弱了普京一直试图确立的说法，即俄罗斯向乌克兰投放伊朗无人机和朝鲜导弹是可以接受的，但乌克兰使用西方提供的武器攻击俄罗斯境内的合法目标却是鲁莽的升级行为，”英国前国家安全顾问、现任上议院议员彼得·里基茨说道。

美联社驻伦敦记者吉尔·劳莱斯和艾玛·伯罗斯，以及驻华盛顿记者泽克·米勒和洛丽塔·C·巴尔多对本报道亦有贡献。