By Marc Santora, Valerie Hopkins, Andrew E. Kramer, Lara Jakes and Eric Schmitt
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin intensified a fraught confrontation with the West, announcing that Russia had fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine as a response to Ukraine’s recent deployment of American and British weapons to hit deeper inside Russian territory.
Putin characterized the launch as a “test” of a new missile known as the Oreshnik, and claimed it successfully struck a military-industrial facility. Ukraine reported that a barrage of missiles, including the intermediate-range type, targeted the city of Dnipro on Thursday, marking the latest escalation in a week filled with increasing tensions between the two nations.
In what seemed to be a veiled threat to Ukraine’s Western allies, Putin remarked: “We believe we have the right to utilize our weapons against the military installations of those nations that permit their armaments to be deployed against our assets.”
Recently, the Ukrainian military has employed longer-range U.S. and British missiles to strike inside Russia, following approval from the two nations after many months of Ukrainian appeals. In retaliation, Putin has diminished the threshold for Russia’s potential use of nuclear arms.
Putin expressed that Russia remains “prepared to resolve all disputes through peaceful means. However, we are also poised for any scenario. If anyone still has doubts about this, it is futile. There will perpetually be a reaction.”
Putin delivered his remarks during a rare national address, blending bravado with menace, stating he aimed his communication at “the Russian armed forces, the citizens of our nation, our global allies, as well as those who continue to nurture misconceptions about being able to deal a strategic blow to Russia.”
The utilization of a missile from Russia’s strategic arsenal on Thursday was significant, according to Ukrainian and Western officials. The target in Ukraine was well within the reach of the conventional weapons that Russia has regularly deployed throughout the conflict.
Rather, Russia opted to launch a longer-range missile designed to carry nuclear warheads, primarily intended for nuclear deterrence; this decision, officials indicated, serves as a warning aimed at instilling fear in Ukraine and its allies.
Ukraine did not claim that the powerful missile was equipped with nuclear armaments.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated, “Putin is utilizing Ukraine as an experimental ground.” He further commented: “Clearly, Putin is anxious when normalcy exists adjacent to him.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters on Thursday that “the escalation at every stage is originating from Russia.”
She reiterated the White House’s stance that the decision to engage North Korean troops in the conflict represented a significant escalation, while shifts in U.S. weapons policy did not. “This is their aggression — not Ukraine’s, nor ours,” she emphasized.
Despite other Russian missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads — such as the Iskander and the Kh-101 — the concern with an intermediate-range missile is its capacity to deploy multiple nuclear warheads upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, remarked Tom Karako, director of the missile defense program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. This characteristics render interception exceptionally challenging, if not virtually impossible.
These missiles are also large, can travel great distances rapidly, and may even achieve hypersonic speeds. This represents “a nuclear saber-rattling directed at both Ukraine and Europe,” according to Karako. “It’s a very pointed warning.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the U.S. National Security Council said that Russia launched what it referred to as “an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine.” The statement suggested that Russia likely possessed “only a small number” of these missiles and had probably employed it to intimidate Ukraine and its allies.
Roman Kostenko, chair of the defense and intelligence committee in Ukraine’s parliament, declared that Thursday’s assault would not lead Ukraine to change its approach to the war, including retaliating against targets in Russia for self-defense.
However, Ukraine discontinued its nuclear missile production following independence in 1991, and now, Kostenko pointed out, “we have nothing to counter this category of weapons.”
Ukraine faces significant challenges in fending off aggressive Russian advances that have rapidly seized territory in Ukraine’s east.
