(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine said Russia launched a “new” kind of ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro, in the latest escalation of hostilities and an alarming signal to Kyiv’s Western backers.
The weapon was an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile, Russia and the US said. It was based on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the weapon had all the parameters of an ICBM. “This is an obvious and serious increase in the scale and brutality of this war,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the weapon used was a new intermediate-range ballistic missile with a conventional warhead.
In televised remarks, Putin said the attack was in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of American and British-made missiles on Russian territory earlier this week.
Those weapons have ranges of only a few hundred miles, however, and the allies authorized their use inside Russia after it deployed thousands of North Korean troops in the fight against Ukraine’s forces.
Oil, gold and wheat rose Thursday after Kyiv first reported the strike.
Russia notified the US of the planned launch shortly before the missile took off through nuclear risk-reduction channels, the Pentagon spokeswoman said.
The Russian missile was launched from the Astrakhan region by the Caspian Sea, a distance of around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), as part of a larger barrage targeting central Ukraine early on Thursday, according to officials in Kyiv.
“This is a very powerful message from Putin,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “It’s a very calculated move as it does not require retaliation by the US.”
The US had warned Ukraine and its other allies that Russia might use the experimental weapon, an American official said, asking not to be identified discussing matters that aren’t public. The official said Moscow has used missiles with significantly larger warheads in its previous attacks.
Ukraine is waiting for experts to confirm the type of missile that was used, the country’s Foreign Ministry said later on Thursday. Kyiv will ask its Western partners for air defense systems capable of intercepting ICBMs, the ministry’s spokesman said.
One of the systems Ukraine could ask for is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system produced by Lockheed Martin Corp, the spokesman said.
Since the start of the war, Ukraine has persuaded its western allies to provide the country other advanced air-defense systems, including the US-made Patriot batteries, despite initial hesitation on the part of its allies.
Putin has lowered the threshold for the use of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal as President Joe Biden reversed course and allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike Russia. Ukraine also used UK-made Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets.
“It’s a very dangerous position that the outgoing administration is taking,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the US decision Thursday, according to Tass. “There is a new escalation happening.”
Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s circle have taken a similar stance, criticizing the Biden administration’s approach as leading to a spiral of escalating attacks.
An industrial facility was damaged in Dnipro Thursday, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak, while other reports said that a rehabilitation center for veterans was damaged. Putin said the target was a military plant.
Explosions were heard in the central city of Kryvyi Rih after a second nationwide alert was announced due to the threat of a new ballistic missile attack, city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram. There was no information on casualties or damage.
The embassies of the US and some European Union countries in Kyiv temporarily closed on Wednesday in anticipation of a major retaliatory missile strike by Russia. The embassies reopened Thursday.
Six of seven Kh-101 cruise missiles were downed during the morning attack, Ukraine’s Air Force command said on Telegram. They didn’t provide additional information on the new missile they said was involved or the launch of a Kinzhal missile, another type of high-speed projectile that was used the attack, only saying they resulted in no “significant consequences,” according to the statement.
Half of the power consumers in the Dnipropetrovsk region are without electricity due to supply cuts after the attack, Serhii Kovalenko, a manager at Yasno distribution company said on Facebook.
Some of Ukraine’s dollar bonds gained slightly. Despite the escalating conflict, the sovereign notes issued by the government in Kyiv have been boosted recently by investor bets that Trump’s return to the White House will bring steps toward a truce between Ukraine and Russia.
--With assistance from Tony Capaccio, Natalia Drozdiak, Jenny Leonard, Maxim Edwards, Andras Gergely, Thomas Hall, Ailbhe Rea, Henry Meyer and Olesia Safronova.
(Updates with Pentagon comment from second paragraph)
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