The Russian missile that struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday flew for 15 minutes and reached a maximum speed of beyond Mach 11, says Kyiv’s top spy agency.
Vladimir Putin said Moscow struck a Ukrainian military facility with a new medium-range, hypersonic ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik”.
“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 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 11 is eleven times the speed of sound.
HUR added that the weapon was “likely from the ‘Kedr’ missile complex”.
Kyiv initially suggested Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, but US officials and NATO echoed Putin’s description of the weapon as an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Meanwhile, Yvette Cooper dismissed Putin’s missile attack threat on Britain as ‘bluster’ and stressed it would not undermine support for Ukraine.
The Home Secretary made the strong statement after Putin confirmed Russia has tested a new intermediate-range weapon in Ukraine in response to Kyiv firing missile supplied by the UK and US into Russia.
Kyiv’s air force initially said the Russian missile that hit the city of Dnipro on Thursday was an intercontinental ballistic missile, though the Kremlin says it was a new intermediate range weapon.
In a televised address, Putin said: “In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on November 21 of this year, the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the Ukrainian defence industry.
“One of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested in combat conditions, in this case, with a ballistic missile in a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead.”
In a threat to the UK and US, he added: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.”
But Ms Cooper told LBC Radio: “We have seen the bluster and the aggressive talk and threats from Putin right from the very beginning.
“There is nothing new in this and we have also been very clear that we stand by Ukraine in their response to Russian aggression and to the invasion of their country.
“That is why we have supplied Ukraine with weapons and equipment to help them defend their country and will continue to stand by Ukraine.”
She added: “Putin may think that aggressive talk will deter people from supporting Ukraine, of course it won’t, and of course it doesn’t and it hasn’t since the very start.”
On the battlefield, Putin’s troops are accelerating their advance in eastern Ukraine, says Russia’s defence minister.
Andrei Belousov made the claim in a video where he was shown in the Defence Ministry footage visiting a Russian command post in Ukraine and handing out medals for bravery.
Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Kurakhove and Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine and in the Kursk region of their country, while Ukrainian forces recently regained lost positions near Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for The Study of War.
Putin’s military has stepped up drone and missile attacks, killing and injuring civilians including children, as well as Ukrainian soldiers.
* A Russian drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 12 on Friday morning, regional authorities said in a statement.
