KYIV — Russia launched an Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, as part of a large-scale aerial assault on Ukraine overnight Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said — a menacing reminder to the world of Moscow’s huge nuclear arsenal at a moment when a peace plan promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be faltering.
Russian forces first used the Oreshnik — meaning “hazelnut tree” — in an attack on Ukraine in November 2024, creating concern in Western capitals over Moscow’s use of nuclear-capable weapons in the conflict. The missile fired overnight Friday did not carry a nuclear payload.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday in a statement on Telegram that the missile was launched in retaliation for an attack by Ukrainian forces on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in the northwestern Novgorod region, an incident Russian officials alleged last week. Kyiv denied the attack, and Western authorities, including Trump, have rejected Moscow’s claims.
“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters earlier this week.
On Friday, Ukrainian officials did not specify whether an Oreshnik had been used. However, the country’s western air command said in a Facebook post that “the enemy launched a missile strike on infrastructure facilities in Lviv using a ballistic missile.”
“The air target was moving at a speed of about 13,000 kilometers per hour along a ballistic trajectory,” the air command said. “The type of missile with which the Russian aggressors attacked the city will be established after studying all its elements.”
Ukrainian media reported six loud explosions in the Lviv region, one after another, shortly before midnight.
In a Telegram post, Ukraine’s air force said that a “medium-rаnge ballistic missile” was launched from Russia’s Kapustin Yar test site, in the Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the possible use of an Oreshnik near Ukraine’s border with European Union and NATO member Poland was “a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community.”
“We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” Sybiha wrote on X.
“It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” he wrote, adding that Putin used the Oreshnik “in response to his own hallucinations — this is truly a global threat.”
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