Russia fires intercontinental ballistic missile in attack on Ukraine, Kyiv says

KYIV: Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile during an attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, Kyiv’s air force said, in what would be the first use in war of a weapon designed to deliver long-distance nuclear strikes.

The launch, if confirmed, highlights rapidly rising tensions in the 33-month-old war after Ukraine fired U.S. and British missiles at targets inside Russia this week despite warnings by Moscow that it would see such action as a major escalation.

Security experts said it would be the first military use of an intercontinental ballistic missile. ICBMs are strategic weapons designed to deliver nuclear warheads and are an important part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

“Today there was a new Russian missile. All the characteristics – speed, altitude – are (of an) intercontinental ballistic (missile). An expert (investigation) is currently underway,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video statement.

The Ukrainian air force said the missile was fried from the Russian region of Astrakhan, more than 700 km (435 miles) from Dnipro in central-eastern Ukraine. It did not specify what kind of warhead the missile had or what type of missile it was. There was no suggestion it was nuclear-armed.

Asked about the Ukrainian air force statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters to contact the Russian military for comment.

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Ukrainska Pravda, a Kyiv-based media outlet, cited anonymous sources saying the missile was an RS-26 Rubezh, a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,800 km, according to the Arms Control Association.

The RS-26 was first successfully tested in 2012, and is estimated to be 12 metres (40 ft) long and weigh 36 tons, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). It said the RS-26 can carry an 800-kg (1,765-pound)nuclear warhead.

The RS-26 is classified as an ICBM under a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia, but it can be seen as an intermediate-range ballistic missile when used with heavier payloads at ranges below 5,500 km, CSIS said.

The Russian missile attack targeted enterprises and critical infrastructure in the central-eastern city of Dnipro, the air force said.

Ukraine’s air force did not say what the ICBM targeted or whether it had caused any damage, but regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the missile attack damaged an industrial enterprise and set off fires in Dnipro. Two people were hurt.

Russia also fired a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles, six of which were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said.

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‘Totally unprecedented’

The NATO military alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. European Command said it had nothing on the reported use of an ICBM and referred questions to the U.S. Department of Defense.

“If true this will be totally unprecedented and the first actual military use of ICBM. Not that it makes a lot of sense given their price and precision,” Andrey Baklitskiy of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research posted on X.

German security expert Ulrich Kuehn posted: “It looks as if Russia has today used an intercontinental ballistic missile in a war for the first time in history, against the civilian target Dnipro.”

Some military experts said the ICBM launch, if confirmed, could be seen as an act of deterrence by Moscow following Kyiv’s strikes into Russia with Western weapons this week.

“An ICBM launch can certainly be seen as a threatening gesture, potentially in response to the lifting of restrictions on ATACMS and Storm Shadow. It’s a means of deterrence,” said a European military source.

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Russian war correspondents on Telegram and an official speaking on condition of anonymity said Kyiv fired British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine on Wednesday.

Russia’s defence ministry, in its daily report of events over the previous 24 hours on Thursday, said air defences had shot down two British Storm Shadow cruise missiles but did not say where.

Ukraine also fired U.S. ATACMS missiles into Russia on Tuesday after U.S. President Joe Biden gave the all-clear to use such missiles, two months before he leaves office and Donald Trump returns to the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks.

Trump has said he will end the war, without saying how, and criticised billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine under Biden. The warring sides believe Trump is likely to push for peace talks - not known to have been held since the war’s earliest months - and are trying to attain strong positions before negotiations.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.