Closing summary
We’ll now pause our live coverage of Russia’s ballistic missile strike on Ukraine – it’s just gone 2am in Kyiv and 3am in Moscow. You can read our full report on the attack here. And here’s a summary of the latest developments. Thanks for reading.
Vladimir Putin said Russia fired an experimental ballistic missile at a military site in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning. The Russian president said during an unannounced televised address to the nation that the new missile was called Oreshnik (the hazel) and that its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”.
Putin appeared to directly threaten the US and UK, who earlier this week allowed Ukraine to fire western-made Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets, he said during his televised address, adding that Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.
The new intermediate range ballistic missile was part of a wider salvo of nine missiles fired from the Astrakhan region of Russia between 5am and 7am on Thursday. Six of the missiles were intercepted by Ukraine’s air force but the new ballistic missile was not stopped. The missile was said to have hit “without consequences”, Ukraine’s air force said, though it added that complete information about victims had yet to be received.
Ukraine’s air force had initially claimed Russia had fired a longer-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at Dnipro. US and UK sources indicated that they believed the missile was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US. Ukraine’s 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.
Zelenskyy called for a “strong” international response to the Russian missile strike, describing it as a major step-up in the “scale and brutality” of the war. In a statement after Putin’s address, Zelenskyy said the strike was “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”, adding that “response is needed. Pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength.”
UN secretary general António Guterres’s spokesperson said Russia’s use of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile was “yet another concerning and worrying development”. “All of this [is] going in the wrong direction,” Stéphane Dujarric said as he called on all parties to de-escalate the conflict and “to protect civilians, not hit civilian targets or critical civilian infrastructure”.
A Nato spokesperson said the missile would not affect the course of the war nor the western alliance’s support for Kyiv. Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah was quoted as describing the Russian strike on Dnipro as “yet another example of Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian cities”.
The White House said Russia was to blame for “escalating at every turn” in its war in Ukraine, including in its decision to involve North Korean troops. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added that the US did not see “any reason” to modify its nuclear posture or doctrine in reaction to changes announced by Russia.
The US was notified by Russia shortly before its strike on Dnipro, according to a US official. Russia is required by a treaty to inform the US of the launch of certain kinds of ballistic missiles, in the hopes of preventing an escalatory ladder that could lead to an all-out nuclear war. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia notified the US 30 minutes before the strike through the US’s Nuclear Threat Reduction Center.
Ukraine’s parliament postponed a sitting due to have taken place on Friday out of security concerns, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, quoting sources. It said the order told members to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December.
Updated
Ukrainian parliament reportedly cancels sitting amid security fears
Ukraine’s parliament has postponed a sitting due to have taken place on Friday out of security concerns, public broadcaster Suspilne has reported, quoting sources.
“On 22nd November, plans called for a session of the Verkhovna Rada [parliament], which included questions to the government, but this was cancelled for reasons of potential security issues,” Suspilne said on Thursday.
It said the order told members to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December, Reuters reports.
The postponement occurred after Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck Dnipro in Ukraine with an experimental hypersonic missile and suggested more could follow “in case of escalation of aggressive actions”.
One opposition member of the Ukrainian parliament, Oleksiy Honcharenko, expressed frustration at the cancellation, saying on Telegram that an opportunity to put questions to the government had been lost.
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