President Vladimir V. Putin escalated a tense showdown with the West on Thursday, saying that Russia had launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in response to Ukraine’s recent use of American and British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
Mr. Putin called the strike a “test” of a new missile called the Oreshnik and said that its was successful, hitting a military-industrial complex. Ukraine said that a volley of missiles, including the intermediate missile, targeted the eastern city of Dnipro on Thursday, the latest assault in a week of rising hostilities between the two adversaries.
In what appeared to be an ominous threat against Ukraine’s western allies, Mr. Putin said: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.”
Mr. Putin made his comments in a rare address to the nation. His tone was both boastful and threatening, saying he was sending his message to “the Russian Armed Forces, the citizens of our country, our friends around the world, as well as those who continue to harbor illusions about the possibility of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.”
The use of a new weapon drawn from a strategic arsenal was notable, Ukrainian and western officials said. The target inside Ukraine was well within the range of the conventional weapons that Moscow has routinely used throughout the war.
Instead, Russia launched a longer-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads that is mainly intended as nuclear deterrence; that choice, the officials said, signals a warning aimed at striking fear into Kyiv and its allies.
In the last few days, the Ukrainian military has used longer-range American and British missiles to strike into Russia, after the two countries granted permission to do so after months of Ukrainian requests. In response, President Vladimir V. Putin lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
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