Ukraine says new Russian missile flew at 13,000kmh, took 15 minutes to hit target

KYIV - The Russian missile that struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov 21 reached a top speed of more than 13,000kmh and took about 15 minutes to reach its target from its launch, Ukraine said on Nov 22, in its first public assessment of the new weapon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said

Moscow struck a Ukrainian military facility

with a new intermediate-range, hypersonic ballistic missile known as "Oreshnik" as a warning to the West against supporting Ukraine's war effort.

The attack took place with fighting in the war nearing the three-year mark and Ukraine firing longer-range missiles supplied by its Western allies at targets inside Russia.

"The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment of its launch in the Astrakhan region to its impact in the city of Dnipro was 15 minutes," the military's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) said in a statement.

"The missile was equipped with six warheads: each equipped with six submunitions. The speed at the final part of the trajectory was over Mach 11."

Mach is a measurement of supersonic speed. Mach 11 equals about 13,600kmh.

HUR added that the weapon was likely to be from the Kedr missile complex, which deputy head Vadym Skibitsky told Ukrainian media is related to the Oreshnik system and was first tested in June 2021.

Major-General Skibitsky said Russia could have at least 10 more such missiles to test before they enter mass production, news agency Ukrinform reported.

Kyiv initially suggested Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile,

but US officials and Nato echoed Mr Putin's description of the weapon as an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Ukraine's foreign ministry on Nov 21 urged the international community to react swiftly to the strike.

Nato will hold an emergency meeting with Ukraine at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on Nov 26 to discuss Moscow's strike, a Nato source said on Nov 22. REUTERS