President Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened to strike “decision-making centres” in Kyiv with Russia’s new hypersonic missile, hours after Moscow pummelled Ukraine’s energy grid in an attack that left a million people without power.
Russia fired more than 90 missiles and around 100 drones during the barrage, Kyiv said, in what the Kremlin chief called a “response” to Ukrainian strikes on his territory with Western missiles.
The nearly three-year war has seen a sharp escalation in recent days, with both sides deploying new weapons in a bid to gain the upper hand before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial or decision-making centres, including in Kyiv,” Putin told a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana, referring to the hypersonic missile.
Kyiv’s government district – an area of the capital where multiple government buildings are located – is protected with intense security, but fears for it have risen over the last week.
Russia last week tested its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on Ukraine, and Putin boasted on Thursday that firing several of the weapons at once would have the equivalent force of a nuclear strike or a “meteorite” hit.