Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin firing new ballistic missile is ‘severe escalation’ as Nato and Kyiv to meet
Zelensky urged worldwide condemnation and said the attack was proof Russia has ‘no interest in peace’
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Your support makes all the difference.Russia’s use of a new experimental hypersonic missile is a severe escalation of the conflict, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned.
Zelensky said the attack on Dnipro, central Ukraine, with a medium-range ballistic warhead on Thursday was “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”.
Ukrainian air defence forces said the missile – which has a range of more than 3,400 miles and can be used to carry nuclear warheads – was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, on the Caspian Sea.
In response, Nato and Ukraine will meet in Brussels, Belgium, next week to discuss Moscow’s use of the Oreshnik missile.
“He is testing you, dear partners. He must be stopped. A lack of tough reactions to Russia’s actions sends a message that such behaviour is acceptable. This is what Putin is doing,” Zelensky said.
“Pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength,” he added.
Vladimir Putin said the missile travelled at 10 times the speed of sound and so could not be intercepted - allowing Russia to strike most of Europe and the west coast of the United States.
Putin says Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine
Jeremy Kyle cuts off caller who ‘defends’ Putin in heated live interview clash
Russia spokesperson takes phone call during presser telling her not to comment on missile strike
What is the Storm Shadow cruise missile? Ukraine hits Russia with British weapon for first time
UK signs security pact with Moldova
The UK has signed a new security and defence partnership agreement with Moldova, as Ukraine’s western neighbour anxiously eyes Russia’s nearby invasion and accuses Moscow of meddling in its elections.
Pro-European president Maia Sandu won re-election last month, but by a smaller margin than expected, as a tiny margin of Moldovan voters backed a referendum to alter the constitution to include provisions on integration with the European Union, presented by premier Dorin Recean on Wednesday.
A UK government statement said the security partnership was aimed at “building on extensive cooperation between the two countries and strengthening Moldovan resilience against external threats”. Foreign secretary David Lammy said: “With Ukraine next door, Moldovans are constantly reminded of Russia’s oppression, imperialism and aggression.”
The deal included £2m to bolster Moldova’s protection against cyberattacks and a £5m grant to improve health services for refugees, as well as an agreement to ensure the return to Moldova of its nationals illegally staying in Britain.
Ukrainian parliament postpones sitting today over security risk
Ukraine’s parliament has postponed a sitting due to have taken place today out of security concerns, public broadcaster Suspilne reported last night, quoting sources.
“On 22 November, plans called for a session of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), which included questions to the government, but this was cancelled for reasons of potential security issues,” Suspilne said.
It said the order told members to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December.
The postponement occurred after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck the central city of Dnipro with a new medium-range hypersonic missile in response to Ukrainian use of Western missiles on targets in Russia.
Mr Putin suggested more could follow “in case of escalation of aggressive actions”.
Military experts decode Putin’s new missile Orshenik: ‘Taunting his enemy’
Russia was sending a message by attacking Ukraine with an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even if they are less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles, said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
“Why might you use it therefore?” Mr Savill said. “Signaling — signaling to the Ukrainians. We’ve got stuff that outrages you. But really signaling to the West ‘We’re happy to enter into a competition around intermediate range ballistic missiles. P.S.: These could be nuclear tipped. Do you really want to take that risk?’”
Military experts say that modern inter-continental ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles are extremely difficult to intercept, although Ukraine has previously claimed to have stopped some other weapons that Russia described as “unstoppable,” including the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
David Albright, of the Washington-based think tank the Institute for Science and International Security, said he was “skeptical” of Mr Putin’s claim, adding that Russian technology sometimes “falls short.”
He suggested Mr Putin was “taunting the West to try to shoot it down... like a braggart boasting, taunting his enemy.”
Orshenik: All you need to know about Putin’s new missile
Vladimir Putin announced the Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile named “Orshenik” at Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.
Orshenik, Russian for hazelnut tree, he said flies at ten times the speed of sound and the US air defence systems will be powerless to stop the new missiles.
Mr Putin said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are used to attack Russia. The Russian leader said he will issue advance warnings if Moscow launches more strikes with the Oreshnik against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety — something Moscow hasn’t done before previous aerial attacks.
Two lions from wartorn Ukraine arrive at their new home
Two lionesses which were rescued from a conflict zone in Ukraine have arrived at their new home in Scotland.
Luna and Plusza, both aged four, arrived at the Five Sisters Zoo, West Calder, West Lothian, on Wednesday night.
The lionesses were rescued from an area affected by heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine in 2022, before being moved through Kyiv, Poland, and Belgium to reach the safety of Scotland.
Lions rescued from war zone in Ukraine arrive at their new home in Scotland
Luna and Plusza continue Five Sisters Zoo’s history of providing homes for lions rescued from difficult circumstances.
North Korean leader says past diplomacy only confirmed US hostility
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward Pyongyang and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday.
Mr Kim spoke on Thursday at a defence exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program.
Kim Jong-un says past negotiations with US confirmed ‘unchangeable’ hostility
North Korea’s leader pledges to build ‘strongest defence’ against external threats
Zelensky says Putin escalating war with ‘deranged ambitions’
Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin is escalating the war, testing Ukraine’s partners and contradicting peace efforts by China, Brazil, the US and European allies. The Ukrainian leader said Mr Putin “must feel the cost of his deranged ambitions” and forced into real peace.
“Today, Putin admitted to taking a second step this year toward escalating and expanding this war. A new ballistic missile was used. Putin struck our city of Dnipro, one of Ukraine’s largest cities,” Mr Zelensky said, calling it “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war”
“Let me emphasise: this is already Russia’s second step toward escalation this year. The first was involving North Korea in the war against Ukraine with a contingent of at least 11,000 soldiers,” he said.
“Putin has taken both of these steps while ignoring everyone in the world who is calling for no further expansion of the war. He disregards calls from China, Brazil, European countries, the United States, and others. Putin alone started this war—an entirely unprovoked war—and he is doing everything to prolong it, now for over a thousand days,” he said in post on X.
Putin said he fired a new missile Oreshnik yesterday which struck a well-known missile factory in Dnipro. He also said Russia would issue advance warnings if it launches more strikes with the Oreshnik against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety — something Moscow hasn’t done before previous aerial attacks.
North Korean general injured in Ukraine’s British Storm Shadow missile attack – WSJ
A high-ranking North Korean General is reportedly injured in a recent Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, Western officials said yesterday.
This is the first casualty of a senior North Korean military officer in the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to the Western officials, reported The Wall Street Journal. Ukraine launched at least 10 British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.
It is not immediately clear how the senior North Korean officer was wounded or his identity.
The US had declared that the North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine will become “fair game and fair targets for the Ukrainians” in October, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council had said last month after the troubling intelligence confirmed Pyongyang was sending its troops to fight in the war.
ICYMI: Germany says sabotage behind cutting of telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea
The damage of two undersea internet cables in the Baltic sea must be seen as an act of sabotage, German defence minister Boris Pistorius has said.
A pair of fibre-optic communications cables were severed on Sunday and Monday, in an incident which “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”, Finland and Germany said in a joint statement.
A 745-mile (1,200 kilometre) cable linking Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working at 2am on Monday, according to Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia.
Another cable linking Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island went out of service at 8am on Monday, according to a Lithuanian communications firm.
My colleague Alex Croft has the full report:
Germany says sabotage behind cutting of telecoms cables in Baltic Sea
Two cables were cut, which connect Germany to Finland and Lithuania to Sweden
Pentagon confirms new Russian missile used in attacking Ukraine
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that Russia’s missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate range missile based on it’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. “This was new type of lethal capability that was deployed on the battlefield, so that was certainly of concern,” Ms Singh said, noting that the missile could carry either conventional or nuclear warheads. The UD was notified ahead of the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels, she said.
The Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine yesterday in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia, president Vladimir Putin said.
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