Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike Ukraine again with a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile following Moscow’s latest widespread attack on critical energy infrastructure.
More than a million households in Ukraine were left without power following the overnight bombardment, authorities in the country said Thursday. It’s Russia’s 11th large-scale assault on Ukraine’s energy supplies this year alone, according to the Energy Ministry in Kyiv, a strategy that has caused nationwide rolling blackouts.
Speaking at a security summit in Kazakhstan Thursday, Putin claimed the overnight attacks were a response to strikes on Russian territory using US-made ATACMS missiles. He also warned he would consider further launches of Russia’s new “Oreshnik” medium-range ballistic missile, first fired at Ukraine’s Dnipro region last week.
“We will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory by Western-made long-range missiles, including the possible continuation of the Oreshnik test in combat conditions,” he said.
Putin also praised US President-elect Donald Trump, describing him as an “intelligent and experienced” politician capable of finding “solutions,” as tensions rise between Moscow and Kyiv’s Western partners.
The Russian leader claimed his forces hit 17 targets, describing them as “military facilities, defense industry facilities and their support systems,” without acknowledging the attacks on power infrastructure. “As I have said many times, there will always be a response from our side (to the use of American ATACMS),” Putin said.
Putin, who has previously said that Moscow considers itself entitled to use weapons against military targets belonging to countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russia, also threatened further strikes.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense is “selecting targets for hitting on Ukrainian territory,” he said. “These could be military facilities, defense industry enterprises or decision-making centers in Kyiv.”
Russia’s use of the Oreshnik ballistic missile, which carries multiple warheads, last week marked a decisive, and potentially dangerous moment in Moscow’s conflict with the West, and may be the first time such a weapon has been used in war.
Putin claimed the missile can get around air defense systems and if several warheads are used together, “the force of the strike will be comparable to the use of nuclear weapons.”
“Everything that is in the epicenter of the explosion is divided into fractions, into elementary particles, essentially turning into dust,” Putin said, adding that the missile “has no nuclear charge.”
The Russian missile attack on Dnipro was not armed with nuclear warheads, but it used a weapon designed for nuclear delivery to instead launch conventional weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the use of the new missile was “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war.”
