Putin accused of ‘reckless nuclear brinkmanship’ in Oreshnik missile strike on Kyiv

Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital overnight on Saturday with drones and ballistic missiles, including a powerful hypersonic Oreshnik missile, killing at least four people and damaging residential buildings.

Several residential buildings were damaged across the city, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, adding that debris was on fire at a school premises in the city centre. According to the mayor, two people were killed in the capital itself, while two others were killed in the wider Kyiv region.

Ukraine President Zelenskyy said the strike involved an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, showing “reckless nuclear-brinkmanship”, the EU’s foreign policy chief said. “Russia hit a dead-end on the battlefield, so it terrorizes Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centres.

Russian President Putin had previously boasted about the Oreshnik missile, claiming it is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound. Following a Ukrainian strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of ​eastern Ukraine overnight on Saturday, Putin had ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation.

The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, joined Macron in condemning the latest Russian attacks and described the use of an Oreshnik ballistic missile as “another escalation”. The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Moscow’s escalating assault on Ukrainian civilians betrays its weakness.”