Russia has fired its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile at a target in western Ukraine, marking a rare and highly symbolic use of an intermediate-range ballistic weapon in the war and triggering alarm across Europe due to the strike’s proximity to NATO and EU borders.
Ukraine confirmed the launch early Friday, saying the missile struck near the western Lviv region, only a short distance from neighbouring EU states. Moscow acknowledged the use of the Oreshnik system, claiming the strike was retaliation for an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence last month — an accusation firmly denied by Kyiv and dismissed by Washington as baseless.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the deployment of such a missile so close to Europe constituted a “grave threat” to regional security and demonstrated Moscow’s willingness to escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders psychologically, if not militarily. He urged Ukraine’s partners to intensify diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Russia, arguing that Moscow’s justification for the strike was “absurd and fabricated.”
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) released photographs of debris it said were fragments of an Oreshnik missile recovered in the Lviv region. While Ukrainian authorities did not disclose the exact target, Lviv’s regional governor confirmed that Russian strikes had damaged a critical infrastructure facility. Unverified reports circulating on social media suggested the site may have been a major underground gas storage facility, though officials have not confirmed this.
Pro-Russian military bloggers also circulated video footage they claimed showed the Oreshnik strike. The clip, filmed over a snow-covered area, appears to show several intense flashes striking the ground, followed by a powerful explosion and a series of secondary blasts. Analysts cautioned that the footage could not be independently verified.
The Oreshnik missile — named after the Russian word for “hazel tree” — is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, though there is no indication that Friday’s strike involved a nuclear payload. Russia first unveiled and used the system publicly in November 2024, when it claimed to have struck a Ukrainian military-industrial facility. Ukrainian officials and Western analysts later said that missile carried inert or dummy warheads and caused limited physical damage.
Initial assessments of the latest launch suggest a similar pattern. Ukrainian and Western sources believe the Oreshnik used in the Lviv strike again carried inert warheads, indicating that the launch was largely demonstrative rather than intended to inflict maximum destruction. The timing of the strike has reinforced that interpretation, coming just days after Ukraine’s European allies agreed in principle on elements of postwar security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire.
President Putin has repeatedly invoked the Oreshnik missile in recent months as a strategic warning to Ukraine and its Western backers. He has threatened that the weapon could be used against countries supplying Kyiv with long-range systems capable of striking targets deep inside Russia. The missile has thus become both a military and political tool, intended to deter further Western involvement.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the reported use of the Oreshnik as a clear escalation designed to intimidate Europe and the United States. She called on EU members to urgently bolster Ukraine’s air defence capabilities and to expand sanctions against Moscow.
“EU countries must dig deeper into their air defence stocks and deliver now,” Kallas said. “We must also further raise the cost of this war for Moscow.”
Putin has claimed that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept due to its hypersonic speed, which he says exceeds 10 times the speed of sound, and that its destructive power rivals that of a nuclear weapon even when armed conventionally. Some Western analysts remain sceptical of these assertions, noting that while the missile’s speed poses a challenge, Russia’s claims about its accuracy and impact may be exaggerated. Nevertheless, Ukraine currently has no air defence system capable of intercepting an intermediate-range ballistic missile of this type.
Alongside the Oreshnik launch, Russian forces carried out widespread overnight strikes across Ukraine, including on Kyiv. Explosions were reported in several districts of the capital. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said at least one person was killed, while Ukraine’s security service reported that five rescue workers were injured while responding to the attacks.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nearly half of the capital’s apartment buildings were left without heating, a serious concern as winter conditions persist. He urged residents with the option to stay outside the city temporarily to do so. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a building housing the Qatari embassy was damaged in the strikes, underscoring the broader diplomatic risks of Russia’s campaign.
The Oreshnik strike capped a week of significant diplomatic developments for Ukraine. On Tuesday, Britain and France said they were prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine after a future peace agreement, a move that would represent a major security commitment by European powers. Russia’s foreign ministry swiftly rejected the idea, calling the presence of Western troops in Ukraine a “direct threat” to Russian security.
That response, combined with the hypersonic missile launch, has deepened doubts about the near-term prospects for a negotiated settlement and highlighted the growing risks of escalation as the war enters another volatile phase.
