{"id":684322,"date":"2026-01-09T11:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/684322\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:06:11","slug":"russia-launches-unstopable-nuke-capable-missile-that-can-hit-london-in-eight-minutes-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/684322\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia launches ‘unstopable’ nuke-capable missile that can ‘hit London in eight minutes’ | World | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Putin unleashed his sinister nuclear-capable 8,000 mph Oreshnik missile<\/a> in a strike on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Russia confirmed. The menacing attack 40 miles from NATO and EU territory in Poland<\/a> was aimed at Europe\u2019s largest underground gas storage facility, it is believed. Russian propaganda has previously boasted that the missile could strike London in as little as eight minutes from launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It came on a night of death and destruction for Ukraine<\/a> with massive attacks on civilians in their homes especially in Kyiv and Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>\u2019s birthplace Kryvyi Rih. It was initially unclear that NATO warplanes in nearby Poland had time to scramble as they routinely do when faced with ballistic missile strikes on western Ukraine. The Oreshnik was fired from the Astrakhan region, deep in Russia<\/a>, and took less than 15 minutes to explode over Lviv, producing a trademark shower of bright flashes that turned the night sky pink-red.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary speed initially fuelled speculation online that Russia used an Oreshnik-type ballistic weapon, but Ukrainian investigators say confirmation of the weapon used will only be possible after analysis of the debris.<\/p>\n

However, the Russian defence ministry admitted to using Oreshnik – claiming it was in response to a Ukrainian bid to kill Putin with a strike on his palace<\/a> at Valdai in the Novgorod region.<\/p>\n

Western intelligence and Ukraine are adamant that there was no such strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn response to the Kyiv regime’s terrorist attack on the residence of the President of the Russian Federation in the Novgorod region, which took place on the night of December 29, 2025, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike using long-range, land- and sea-based precision weapons, including the Oreshnik medium-range ground-mobile missile system, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), against critical targets in Ukraine,\u201d said the Moscow defence ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strike’s objectives were achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [drone] production facilities used in the terrorist attack were hit, as well as energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny terrorist actions by the criminal Ukrainian regime will not go unanswered.”<\/p>\n

It was only the second time it has been used in anger, the first being in Dnipro in 2024 when it was deployed without a warhead in a ploy to terrorise the population.<\/p>\n

The \u2018unstoppable\u2019 Oreshnik system is now based close to Ukraine and NATO territory in Belarus – but this strike came from the Kapustin Yar missile test range in Astraphan region, and may have taken less than seven minutes to cover the 900-mile range to hit its target.<\/p>\n

Russian pro-Putin propaganda channel War Gonzo boasted: \u201cThe power of the explosions was so great that\u2026they were felt by residents of the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The damage to the giant Stryi gas storage facility – vital for Ukrainians’ supplies, especially in midwinter – was initially unclear.<\/p>\n

Even a reduced or inert warhead strike by Putin amounts to a high-speed show of force \u2014 used less to level targets than to terrify, signal escalation and advertise that nowhere feels out of range.<\/p>\n

The strike on Lviv is the clearest indication yet that Putin has no intention of heeding Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s warnings for an end to the war and a peace settlement.<\/p>\n

Russia also repeatedly struck Kyiv in a long and hellish night of deadly attacks, killing and maiming dozens of Ukrainians in a missile and drone onslaught hitting civilians in residential districts.<\/p>\n

In the Ukrainian capital, at least four people were killed and 19 were wounded in strikes over six hours.<\/p>\n

In Kryvyi Rih, one residential property was \u201csimply cut in half\u201d in a ballistic missile attack.<\/p>\n

There were 23 victims, including six children, with one woman killed.<\/p>\n

Putin also staged new artillery strikes on Ukraine’s Sumy region – as the war appears to be worsening, not edging towards peace.<\/p>\n

Ukraine struck Russia with a fearsome explosion at Orlovskaya Thermal Power Station in Oryol region.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that the overnight Oreshnik strike was nuclear, despite its atomic capability.<\/p>\n

Putin claims targets are incinerated by conventional Oreshnik missiles unleashing a temperature of 4,000C, almost as hot as the surface of the sun.<\/p>\n

An Oreshnik launch from Belarus could hit London in eight minutes, far shorter than the time it would take from its earlier launch site in Kapustin Yar in southern Russia, according to Moscow sources.<\/p>\n

Before today, Putin had only used the \u201cgame-changing\u201d nuclear-capable weapon once – in a \u201ctest\u201d launch in November 2024 against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, without a live warhead, an operation aimed at scaring both Kyiv and the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin unleashed his sinister nuclear-capable 8,000 mph Oreshnik missile in a strike on the outskirts of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,2821,207196,12,200813,7661,14,17961,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-684322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-nato","10":"tag-nato-tensions","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-oreshnik-missile","13":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-ukraine-conflict","16":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115864822357876585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}