Ukraine on Thursday said that Russia has fired intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at the country for the first time since the start of war in 2022.
Ukraine’s Air Force said the launch took place from the Astrakhan region of the country, which is in the south-east of Vologograd, bordering the Caspian Sea. Kyiv said overnight attacks by Russia targeted “enterprises and critical infrastructure in the central-eastern city of Dnipro.”
‼️ BREAKING: Ukrainian Telegram channels publish the first footage of the fall of combat parts of an ICBM in Dnipro. pic.twitter.com/MCG6ilNgqR
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 21, 2024
ICBMs have a range of thousands of kilometres and can carry either conventional or nuclear payloads.
Western Official Denies Ukraine Claim
Shortly after the Ukrainian allegations, Western official have denied the claim that Russia has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“It was instead a ballistic missile, which was aimed at Dnipro, in Ukraine’s southeast,” a western official told ABC News.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dimtry Peskov has said that Russia is committed to avoiding nuclear war and added that the west has a responsibility not to engage in “provocative actions.”
Earlier this week, Ukraine had fired US and British manufactured longer-range missiles inside Russia for the first time. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a revised Russian nuclear doctrine, which included the provision that if a non-nuclear power attacked Russia with the assistance of a nuclear power, that would meet the threshold for a nuclear response.
The attack comes after the Russia-Ukraine war marked 1,000 days of war without any end in sight. The war began after Russia started an unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
