Ukraine has accused Russia of firing a new kind of missile at the city of Dnipro as Moscow said it tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile in a strike on Ukraine, amid soaring tensions in the more-than-two-year war.
Kyiv said on Thursday that Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) along with a barrage of rockets at the city in central Ukraine. Local authorities said the attack hit an infrastructure facility and injured two civilians.
In a televised address, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had tested a hypersonic intermediate-range missile in a strike on Ukraine in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries.
A United States official was cited by the Reuters news agency as saying that Russia did not fire an ICBM, but instead launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, according to an assessment based on its initial analysis.
“Today there was a new Russian missile. All the characteristics – speed, altitude – are [of an] intercontinental ballistic [missile],” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video statement.
He said experts were examining the evidence of the attack and accused Moscow of “using Ukraine as a testing ground”.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said that the strike “proves Russia does not seek peace”.
“To the contrary, it makes every effort to expand the war,” he added.
When asked about the attack, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was working to avoid a nuclear conflict.
“We have stressed in the context of our doctrine that Russia is taking a responsible position to make maximum effort not to allow such a conflict,” Peskov said.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has escalated in recent days after the US granted Ukraine permission to use long-range weapons to attack targets in Russia, a decision that Ukraine had sought for months.
On Tuesday, Ukraine reportedly fired US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) missiles at targets in Russia for the first time.
Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks.
On Wednesday, British media reported that Ukraine launched long-range British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at targets in Russia.
The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the use of the missiles.
Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described the opening of a new US missile defence base in Poland as a “provocative step in a series of deeply destabilising actions by the Americans and their allies”.
“This leads to undermining strategic stability, increasing strategic risks and, as a result, to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger,” she said.
Poland dismissed the idea that the base would be used for attack purposes.
The escalation comes as Moscow’s forces have advanced deeper into the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s military announced on Thursday that its forces had captured a village close to Kurakhove, closing in on the town after months of steady advances.
Ukraine’s defensive lines are also buckling under Russian pressure across the front line.