Oreshnik ballistic missile launched in new strike on Ukraine

Russia used Oreshnik ballistic missiles as part of a massive nighttime attack on Ukraine.

Four people were killed and 25 injured in Kiev on Thursday night as explosions filled the sky for hours.

This is only the second time Moscow has used Oreshnik missiles, which were first deployed in November 2024 to attack the central city of Dnipro.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack was in response to a Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s official residence in late December. Kyiv denies implementation.

While the ministry did not specify what Oreshnik was targeting, videos began circulating on social media shortly before midnight (22:00 GMT) showing multiple explosions on the outskirts of the western city of Lviv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian authorities confirmed that a ballistic missile struck infrastructure in Lviv, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Polish border.

Oreshnik is a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, meaning it has a range of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,417 miles). It is thought that its warhead deliberately fragments into inert projectiles at several independent targets during its final descent, creating a unique repetitive explosion in an instant.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andry Sibiha said: “Such an attack close to the EU and NATO borders is a serious threat to the security of the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community.”

He added that the attack was “in response to (Putin’s) own hallucinations,” referring to an alleged drone attack on the presidential palace in December.

The EU immediately expressed serious doubts that the drone strikes had taken place, and last week Donald Trump said he did not believe any such attacks had taken place.

EU foreign policy chief Kaya Karas said on Friday that Russia’s attack on Oreshnik was intended to send a warning to Europe and the United States.

“Putin does not want peace, and Russia’s response to diplomacy is more missiles and destruction. Russia’s deadly pattern of repeated major strikes will repeat itself until we help Ukraine break it,” she wrote on X.

Zelensky said that in addition to Oreshnik missiles, 13 ballistic missiles, 22 cruise missiles and 242 drones targeted energy facilities and civilian infrastructure overnight.

One of them damaged a building of the Qatari embassy, ​​he added.

He accused the attacks of being aimed at “endangering the normal life of ordinary people” during the cold period, adding that every effort was being made to restore heating and power.

More than a dozen missiles and hundreds of drones were deployed during the attack in Kiev, as Lviv and other western regions were targeted Thursday night.

A paramedic died on arrival at a damaged apartment in Kyiv. The capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and Zelensky said it was a “double attack” – the first followed by a second attack that killed rescuers who rushed to help the injured.

Two apartment buildings on the east bank of the Dnieper River and a high-rise building in the city center were also targeted.

In a particularly harsh winter, Kiev is set to hit -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend, knocking out power to several neighborhoods in the city.

On Friday, Klitschko urged Kiev residents to leave temporarily and seek warmth if they can.

“Half of the apartment buildings in Kiev (nearly 6,000) are currently without heating due to massive enemy attacks causing damage to the capital’s critical infrastructure,” he wrote on social media.

“I also appeal to residents of the capital to be given the opportunity to temporarily leave the city and go to places with alternative sources of electricity and heat.”

Targeting power plants has become an ongoing feature of the war, with Ukraine increasingly responding in kind to Russia’s ongoing attacks on energy infrastructure, which often leave millions without access to electricity or heat.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Thursday night that Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine were continuing and that 500,000 people in Russia’s Belgorod region were without power after Ukraine shelled infrastructure.

Authorities also said a Ukrainian attack on a Russian power plant in the city of Orel further north affected water and heating systems.