The Russian missile that struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday flew for 15 minutes and reached a speed of more than Mach 11, Kyiv’s top spy agency said.
Vladimir Putin said Moscow had hit a Ukrainian military base with a new medium-range, hypersonic ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik”.
“The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment it was launched 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 projectile had six warheads: each with six weapons. The speed on the last part of the route was above Mach 11.”
Mach 11 is eleven times the speed of sound.
HUR added that the weapon “probably came from the ‘Kedr” missile complex”.
Kyiv initially said Russia had fired a missile, but US and NATO officials confirmed Putin’s description of the weapon as a medium-range missile.
Meanwhile, Yvette Cooper dismissed Putin’s threats to Britain as “bluster” and insisted it would not affect support for Ukraine.
The Home Secretary made a strong statement after Putin confirmed that Russia had tested a new medium-range missile in Ukraine in response to Kyiv firing a missile supplied by the UK and US to Russia.
Kyiv’s air force initially said the Russian missile that struck the city of Dnipro on Thursday was an intercontinental ballistic missile, although the Kremlin says it was a new medium-range missile.
In a televised speech, Putin said: “In response to the use of long-range weapons by the United States and Britain on November 21 of this year, the Russian military launched a joint attack on one of the facilities of the Ukrainian defense industry.”
“One of Russia’s new medium-range missile systems has been tested in combat conditions, in this case, with a ballistic missile in a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead.”
Threatening the UK and the US, he added: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the forces of countries that allow their weapons to be used against our territories.”
But Ms Cooper told LBC Radio: “We’ve seen bluster and angry rhetoric and threats from Putin from the start.
“There is nothing new in this and we are very clear that we stand with Ukraine in their response to Russian aggression and invasion of their country.
“That’s why we gave Ukraine weapons and equipment to help them defend their country and they will continue to stand with Ukraine.”
He added: “Putin may think that angry rhetoric will stop people from supporting Ukraine, of course it doesn’t, and of course it doesn’t and it hasn’t in the first place.”
On the battlefield, Putin’s forces are rapidly advancing into eastern Ukraine, says Russia’s defense minister.
Andrei Belousov said this in a video where he was shown in the Ministry of Defense visiting a Russian command center in Ukraine and handing out medals for bravery.
Russian troops have recently moved to Kupyansk, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Kurakhove and Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine and the Kursk region of their country, while Ukrainian troops have recently retaken lost ground near Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Putin’s forces have increased drone and missile attacks, killing and injuring civilians, including children, as well as Ukrainian soldiers.
* A Russian drone attack in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and wounded 12 on Friday morning, regional authorities said in a statement.