Russia fires hypersonic Oreshnik missile at target near Ukraine’s border with NATO

MOSCOW – Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile overnight at a target in Ukraine near the border with NATO member Poland, in what Kyiv on Jan 9 called a new threat to European security that demanded a global reaction.

Moscow said it had fired the Oreshnik missile in response to what it has described as an attempted drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences in November, which Ukraine has denied and the US has said did not happen.

It was only the second time that Russia has fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine, and came amid a night of air attacks that the Ukrainian authorities said killed four people in Kyiv, knocked out power in the capital and damaged the Qatari embassy there.

The Oreshnik, designed to project power across Europe and which Moscow says is impossible to intercept, is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, although there was no suggestion it had done so.

A senior Ukrainian official said it appeared to be carrying inert “dummy” warheads.

“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X.

“It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” he added.

“Putin uses an IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) near EU and NATO border in response to his own hallucinations – this is truly a global threat. And it demands global responses.”

Days after a summit where European countries pledged to offer troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and Washington backed giving security guarantees for Kyiv, the European Union said Moscow was trying to intimidate Ukraine’s allies.

“Russia’s reported use of an Oreshnik missile is a clear escalation against Ukraine and meant as a warning to Europe and to the US,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.

“EU countries must dig deeper into their air defence stocks and deliver now. We must also further raise the cost of this war for Moscow, including through tougher sanctions.”

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: “Threatening gestures are intended to instil fear, but they will not work. We stand with Ukraine.”

The senior Ukrainian official said the missile had struck the workshop of a state enterprise in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border. Impact from several submunitions caused “minor penetrations of concrete structures” at the workshop and made craters in the forest area, the official told Reuters.

Separately, the SBU state security service said Russia had attempted to destroy civilian infrastructure in the surrounding region amid “rapidly deteriorating weather conditions”.

Moscow said it hit energy infrastructure and a factory that made drones used in the attack on Mr Putin’s residence.

Kyiv has called Moscow’s allegation that it attacked Mr Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region of northern Russia on Dec 29 “an absurd lie” to sabotage peace talks. 

US President Donald Trump has said he does not believe it happened, although something else happened in the area.

Casualties, power supplies disrupted in attack on Kyiv

Russia fired a total of 242 drones and 36 missiles, including the Oreshnik, to hit infrastructure in the western Lviv region and in and around the capital Kyiv, Ukraine said.

One of the four people killed in Kyiv is Mr Serhiy Smoliak, 56, an emergency medic who had gone to help survivors at a suburban apartment hit by a drone and was killed in a follow-up strike.

His body lay covered on snowy ground near a road. Four other medics and five rescuers there were wounded.

The authorities said more than 20 people were injured in the capital and electricity to over half a million homes was knocked out.

Amid heavy snow and temperatures of around minus 10 deg C, water and heat were cut off. Ukrainians were sheltered underground on mattresses and chairs, some wrapped in blankets.

Qatar confirmed that its embassy was damaged and said no one was hurt there.

Qatar has occasionally acted as a mediator in the conflict.

The Oreshnik was fired just before midnight, according to Lviv regional officials. The Ukrainian military said the missile was moving at a speed of 13,000kmh.

Moscow first fired an Oreshnik – Russian for “hazel tree” – against what it said was a military factory in Ukraine in November 2024.

Ukrainian sources said that missile carried dummy warheads, not explosives, and caused limited damage.

Ukrainian and US envoys, joined by a coalition of Ukraine’s allies, have been negotiating in Paris this week to iron out remaining disagreements in a peace framework Washington is seeking to thrash out with Kyiv before presenting it to Russia.

Moscow has shown scant inclination to drop its maximalist demands. REUTERS