Putin says Russia can hit Kiev with new ballistic missile

Henry Meyer
| Bloomberg

President Vladimir Putin has warned that his forces could hit “decision-making centers” in Ukraine’s capital Kiev with new ballistic missiles in retaliation for attacks on Russia using Western missiles.

At the regional security meeting held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on Thursday, Putin said, “The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are selecting targets to be hit on Ukrainian territory.” “These could be military installations, defense industry enterprises or decision-making centers in Kiev.”

Russia has said it will respond to Ukraine for recent attacks using US-supplied ATACMS and UK-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles as the nearly three-year war against Ukraine continues to escalate.

Last week, the United States allowed Kiev to attack Russian territory with weapons supplied by Washington for the first time since Moscow’s invasion began in February 2022.

In response, Russia launched an experimental medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Putin later said his forces could fire the new missile again in combat.

Putin last week also lowered the threshold for using Russia’s atomic weapons arsenal; this includes a nuclear response to a “major” conventional attack.

London and Washington’s decisions to authorize strikes that Kiev has long demanded came in response to the Kremlin’s deployment of North Korean troops to fight against Ukraine, according to officials from both governments.

Putin downplayed the damage from Kiev’s ATACMS attacks on Thursday, saying it was “minimal.” Still, he said, Russia would decide what weapons to use in any future response based on the damage that would be done to Russian territory in any attack.

On Thursday morning, Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure across Ukraine for the 11th time this year, causing emergency power outages across the country, including Kiev, according to the country’s power grid operator. This was Moscow’s second large-scale barrage this month using both drones and missiles.

The Russian president said that the ballistic missile Oreshnik, which Russia fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, could mimic the power of a nuclear bomb if used in large quantities. He said the Kremlin has many such missiles in its arsenal.

“We will respond to continued attacks on Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, including possibly continuing to test Oreshnik in combat conditions,” Putin said.

According to the DeepState map service, managed in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Russia continued its gradual advance on the front line and made gains in the Khariv and Luhansk regions. Moscow troops also recaptured the village of Daryino in the Kursk border region, where the Kremlin is trying to push Ukrainian forces out of the area it captured in a surprise attack earlier this year.

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