War in Ukraine. Russians have launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Ukrainian military said

On Thursday morning, Russians shelled Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, they used, among other things, an intercontinental ballistic missile. As Reuters wrote after the first such reports, if it were true, Russia would use this type of weapon to attack for the first time. Ukraine.

A few hours after these reports, the agency, quoting two anonymous officials from Western countries, noted that after a preliminary analysis, it can be concluded that ICBM was not used in the attack. At the same time – they emphasized – this assessment may change.

“The ballistic missile used by Russia to attack the Dnieper was not an intercontinental missile, but an intermediate-range ballistic missile,” US officials also said on Thursday, quoted by The New York Times. However, they stressed that this is the case a “new type” of missile, not yet used during the invasion of Ukraine. According to a senior official quoted by the NYT, the missile used to strike the Dnieper plant appeared to be a medium-range ballistic missile. As added, it was a “new type” of missile that had been monitored by Washington for some time.

Reuters after hours 20 on Thursday quoted an administration official USAwho reported that the US stayed “warned by Russia shortly before the strike using an experimental medium-range ballistic missile”. Moscow conveyed this message through an existing communication channel between the countries used to reduce tensions over the nuclear risk.

Vladimir Putin in an evening speech on television, he said that a “new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile” was used to attack Ukraine, and the target was apparently a military facility.

He said that the new missile was called Oriesznik by engineers and “there is currently no way to counter such weapons.” According to the leader, it attacks at a speed of mach 10, or 2-3 km/s.

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At the same time, Putin threatened – addressing citizens – that Russia would respond with attacks on the military facilities of those Western countries whose weapons are used by Ukrainians to attack inside Russia. He also repeated the same argument for three years, trying to argue that it is the “West” that is attacking Russia.

The Ukrainian side published a statement regarding the attack in the morning. She did not specify what type of ballistic missile the Russians were supposed to launch. According to the first information from the Ukraińska Pravda website, it was a missile RS-26 Outlandwhich was aimed at the city of Dnieper. It was this city that was the target of the Russians' massive morning attack.

According to Serhiy Lisak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, as a result of the shelling, one of the industrial enterprises was damaged and fires broke out in the city. Two people were injured.

In the early afternoon, the president Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the speed and altitude of the fired missile indicated that it was an intercontinental ballistic missile, Reuters notes.

Putin “is so afraid that he is already using new missiles. And he is looking around the world for other places where he could find weapons: either in Iran or in North Korea. Today a new Russian missile appeared. It has all the characteristics – speed, height – of an intercontinental ballistic missile. We are currently conducting research“- he declared.

The president said it was obvious that Vladimir Putin was using Ukraine as a testing ground.

“It is obvious that Putin is afraid when normal life goes on around him. When people simply have dignity. When the country simply wants to be and has the right to independence,” he said.

He thanked Ukrainians and Ukrainian women who defend the state “against this evil steadfastly, bravely, firmly.” “Dignified. This is one of the main words about Ukraine – dignity. And it is a word that will probably never be said about Russia again,” the president concluded.

Former adviser to the President of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, previously published a video on social media purporting to show the attack on the Dnieper. “This is the first city in history to be hit by an intercontinental ballistic missile. This is a historic turning point.” – he wrote.

It is not known whether the recording is authentic.

Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) have a range of more than 5,500 kilometers. They can be used to carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

In a statement, the Ukrainian armed forces said that Russia also fired a Kh-47M2 Kindzhal missile and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles on Thursday morning. Six of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defense.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian website Defense Express analyzed the capabilities of the RS-26 Rubezh missile. According to the website, work on the RS-26 Rubiez began no later than 2006. They were conducted in secret because they violated the INF Treaty signed with the US in 1987, which provided for significant restrictions in the production of missiles.

“The exact characteristics of the RS-26 Rubież are currently unknown. The most reliable information is a take-off weight of 40-50 tons, a range of up to 6,000 kilometers and equipment in the form of four separate warheads with a power of 0.3 Mt each,” wrote Defense Express .

– Only two facilities in Europe can shoot down such missiles: the recently opened anti-missile defense base in Redzikowo, Poland, and a similar base in Romania – said Iwan Kyryczewski, expert of the Defense Express portal.

He assessed that the response to such Russian actions should be to further strengthen the defense capabilities of “Ukraine and Eastern Europe, primarily Poland.”