By Andrew Osborn
Jan 9 (Reuters) – The Russian military said it had fired its hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine in response to what it described as an attempted Ukrainian drone strike on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, something Kyiv has called a lie.
It is the second time that Russia has used the intermediate-range Oreshnik, a missile which President Vladimir Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound.
The missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads as well as conventional ones, but there was no suggestion that the one used in the overnight attack had been fitted with anything other than a conventional warhead.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the strike had targeted critical infrastucture in Ukraine. It said Russia had also used attack drones and high-precision long-range land and sea-based weapons.
“The strike’s targets were hit. The targets included facilities producing unmanned aerial vehicles used in the terrorist attack (allegedly against the Putin residence), as well as energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine has called the Russian allegation that its drones tried to attack one of Putin’s residences in the Novogorod region at the end of December “an absurd lie” designed to sabotage already troubled peace talks.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t believe the strike on the residence happened, but that “something” unrelated happened fairly nearby.
STRIKE REPORTED BY HEAD OF WESTERN UKRAINIAN REGION
The governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region had earlier said that a Russian attack had struck an infrastructure target, which unverified social media reports said was a massive underground gas storage facility.
Reuters could not verify that.
The Ukrainian air force confirmed on Friday that Russia had fired an Oreshnik missile launched from the Kapustin Yar test range near the Caspian Sea.
Moscow first fired an Oreshnik – Russian for hazel tree – against what it said was a military factory in Ukraine in November 2024. On that occasion Ukrainian sources said the missile was carrying dummy warheads, not explosives, and caused limited damage.
Putin has said that the Oreshnik’s destructive power is comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, even when fitted with a conventional warhead.
Some Western officials have expressed scepticism about the Oreshnik’s capabilities. One U.S. official said in December 2024 that the weapon was not seen as a game-changer on the battlefield.
Russia released video in December of what it said was the deployment of the Oreshnik missile system in close ally Belarus, a move meant to boost Moscow’s ability to strike targets across Europe in the event of a war.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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