Ukraine said Russia launched a “new” kind of ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro, in the latest escalation of hostilities and an alarming signal to Kyiv’s Western backers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday the weapon had all the parameters of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). But a U.S. official, asking not to be identified discussing information that isn’t public, later said it was an experimental medium-range ballistic missile, which has a shorter range.
It was launched from the Astrakhan region by the Caspian Sea, a distance of around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), as part of a larger barrage targeting central Ukraine early on Thursday, according to officials in Kyiv.
“Obviously, Putin is using Ukraine as a testing ground,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on his Telegram account posted on Thursday.
The launch of an ICBM, which has a range of more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) and is primarily designed to deliver nuclear weapons, would mark a significant step up in Moscow’s attacks.
Russia had warned the U.S. and its allies that it would retaliate for the use of American and British-made missiles by Ukraine on Russian territory earlier this month. Those weapons have ranges of only a few hundred miles, however, and the allies authorized their use inside Russia after it deployed thousands of North Korean troops in the fight against Ukraine’s forces.
Oil, gold and wheat rose on Kyiv’s assertions an ICBM had been launched against Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred questions about the missile launch to Russia’s Defense Ministry, while separately saying that Moscow takes a “responsible position” to avoiding nuclear conflict, the state-run Tass news agency reported.
“This is a very powerful message from Putin,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “It’s a very calculated move as it does not require retaliation by the U.S.”
The U.S. had warned Ukraine and its other allies that Russia might use the experimental weapon, the American official said, noting that Moscow has used missiles with significantly larger warheads in its previous attacks.