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.
Key events
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.
Missile strike ‘a severe escalation in scale and brutality’ of war against Ukraine, says Zelenskyy
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has issued a statement on X after Vladimir Putin said Russian forces had hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new experimental mid-range ballistic missile.
The Russian leader has “admitted” to taking a step “toward escalating and expanding this war” by using a new ballistic missile on Ukraine, Zelenskyy wrote.
Putin struck our city of Dnipro, one of Ukraine’s largest cities. This is a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war — a cynical violation of the UN Charter by Russia.
He said this was Russia’s second step towards escalation this year, after bringing 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders.
Zelenskyy said Putin was “ignoring everyone in the world” who has urged against further expansion of the war, including calls from China, Brazil, European countries and the US. He added:
Putin alone started this war—an entirely unprovoked war — and he is doing everything to prolong it, now for over a thousand days.
Dan Sabbagh
Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Thursday that nine projectiles were launched at Dnipro between 5am and 7am local time from the Astrakhan region of Russia. In that case, the missile probably travelled about 500 miles (800km) to reach its target.
US and UK sources indicated that they believed the missile fired on Dnipro was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,417 miles (5,500km).
That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.
Ukraine’s air force had initially claimed Russia had fired a longer-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). However, the president, 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.
Russian ICBMs can have ranges of more than 6,200 miles, in theory enough to reach the US east coast from Astrakhan, and are capable of being nuclear armed.
ICBMs were developed in the 1950s, at the height of the cold war, as a way for the Soviet Union and the US to threaten each other’s populations directly with nuclear weapons. US congressional research estimates that Russia has 326 ICBMs in its nuclear arsenal, but no country had fired one in a war before.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, was interrupted during a briefing earlier on Thursday by a call that instructed her not to comment on reports of a Russian ballistic missile attack at Ukraine.
Zakharova, in the middle of a regular press conference, received a call from a man who used the informal “Mash” instead of Maria, according to video that picked up the telephone conversation.
In the brief telephone exchange, the caller appears to disclose that the strike targeted the Yuzhmash military facility in Dnipro. The man is overheard saying:
About the ballistic missile strike on Yuzhmash (rocket company Pivdenmash) that the western media are talking about, we are not commenting at all.
Russia notified US shortly before strike, says US official
The US was notified by Russia shortly before its strike with an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to a US official.
The US official was quoted by Reuters as saying:
The US was pre-notified briefly before the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow informed Washington that it was going to launch the missile 30 minutes before firing it at Ukraine, Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported.
“The Russian side warned the Americans about the launch of ’Oreshnik’,” Peskov told Tass.
An agreement between the US and Russia signed in 2000 provides in theory that each side should notify the other at least 24 hours ahead of any planned missile launch in excess of 500km.
Joanna Walters
The United States does not see “any reason” to modify its nuclear posture or doctrine in reaction to changes announced by Russia, the White House further said in recent minutes, during the ongoing media briefing in Washington, DC today.
The White House condemned what it termed “irresponsible” rhetoric from Moscow.
We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia’s statements,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
She added a few minutes later:
We have not seen any indication of Russia preparing to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. So this is more of their irresponsible [talk] from Russia that we have seen these past two years. This is a war they can end, they can end it today.”
Russia escalating ‘at every turn’ in Ukraine, says White House
Joanna Walters
The White House said moments ago that Russia is to blame for “escalating at every turn” in its war in Ukraine, just over 1,000 days since it invaded its smaller neighbor.
That escalation included Russian ally North Korea adding troops to join Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
The escalation at every turn is coming from Russia,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters gathered in the daily briefing room in the west wing at the White House, in Washington, DC.
Jean-Pierre added that the US has previously warned Moscow not to involve
Another country in another part of the world.”
Vladimir Putin’s televised address to the nation came after Ukraine claimed earlier on Thursday that Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at the central city of Dnipro.
Nine projectiles were launched at enterprises and critical infrastructure in Dnipro between 5am and 7am local time from the Astrakhan region of Russia, Ukraine’s air forces said.
The missile was said to have hit “without consequences” the air force said, though it added that information about victims had yet to be received.
Six of the nine projectiles were destroyed by air defences, the air force said in a morning update.
Initial unconfirmed reports from Ukraine had suggested Russia had used ICBM, a weapon designed for long-distance nuclear strikes and never before used in war. There was no suggestion the weapon was nuclear-armed.
Three US officials said it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a smaller range. Intermediate-range ballistic missiles have a range of 3,000-5,500km (1,860-3,415 miles).
Missile attack a ‘response to Nato’s aggressive actions against Russia’, says Putin
Vladimir Putin said Russia’s deployment of an experimental medium-range ballistic missile on a Ukrainian military target was “a response” to “aggressive actions of Nato countries against Russia”.
The Russian leader said the strike on Thursday morning came in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with US and British missiles earlier this week.
In comments carried by the Moscow Times, Putin said:
We consider ourselves justified in using our weapons against military targets in those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities. In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and accordingly.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said in a televised address that his forces tested the new ballistic hypersonic missile “Oreshnik”, which means “hazel” in Russian.
Among the operations carried out was the testing of one of Russia’s latest medium-range missile systems. In this case, a ballistic missile equipped with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead was used.
The tests were deemed successful, he said, adding that the target had been struck “as intended”.
Putin says Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine in warning to west
Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia fired a hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian military site, as he warned the west that Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provide Kyiv with long-range weapons.
The Russian leader, in an unannounced televised address to the nation on Thursday evening, said Russia tested the new ballistic hypersonic missile Oreshnik to strike a military facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
The Russian leader said the strike on Ukraine on Thursday morning came in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with US and British missiles earlier this week.
