{"id":503158,"date":"2026-01-09T06:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503158\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:52:14","slug":"russia-strikes-ukraine-with-oreshnik-ballistic-missile-one-of-its-most-advanced-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503158\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia strikes Ukraine with Oreshnik ballistic missile, one of its most advanced weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyiv
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Russia<\/a> attacked Ukraine with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile overnight Thursday, a rare use of one of its most advanced weapons during the latest onslaught targeting the country amid freezing temperatures.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range land- and sea-based weapons, including the Oreshnik mobile medium-range ground-based missile system,\u201d the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Oreshnik, which is Russian for \u201chazelnut tree,\u201d is one of Russia\u2019s newest weapons, traveling up to 10 times the speed of sound with a range that allows it to reach all of Europe, Russia\u2019s missile forces chief has said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The missile can contain multiple warheads and carry either conventional or nuclear payloads. Moscow used it for the first time in November 2024, striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro even though the weapon was not fully developed at the time.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last month, Russia released video<\/a> of what it said was the deployment of the Oreshnik missile system in close ally Belarus.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russia said it launched its attack in response to Ukraine\u2019s purported attempt to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s home last month \u2013 a claim that came amid intensive talks led by US President Donald Trump and his envoys to end the war in Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n

\n The CIA has assessed Ukraine was not targeting<\/a> a residence used by Putin, according to US officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Oreshnik strike came hours after Moscow repeated that European troops deployed to Ukraine as part of any future peace deal would be considered \u201clegitimate targets,\u201d and the seizing of a Russian-flagged oil tanker by the United States on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several explosions and a ballistic missile strike on a critical infrastructure facility were reported by authorities in the western city of Lviv.\n <\/p>\n

\n The missile was \u201cmoving at a speed of about 13,000 kilometers per hour along a ballistic trajectory,\u201d a statement from the Air Command \u201cWest\u201d of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. It added the type of missile would be determined after its components had been examined.\n <\/p>\n

\n A speed of 13,000 kilometers per hour is about 10 times the speed of sound.\n <\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

\n In Kyiv a CNN reporter said that the attack began around midnight, starting with multiple drone strikes on residential buildings.\n <\/p>\n

\n Streetlights flickered before large parts of the city were plunged into darkness, as a thick fog settled over the streets and temperatures plummeted to \u20135 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit).\n <\/p>\n

\n Four people were killed and 10 others wounded in the attack, according to the city\u2019s mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d had also been damaged.\n <\/p>\n

\n There was \u201cno information\u201d about casualties following the missile strike on Lviv, mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram. \u201cCivilian facilities and residential buildings in the city have not been affected,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russia has been pounding Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure<\/a> with drones and missiles in recent weeks, a tactic used in previous winters. The strikes have left tens of thousands of people across the country without power or heating amid freezing winter temperatures. Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the aim of such attacks is \u201cto create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\n The reports came hours after the US Embassy in Ukraine said it had \u201creceived information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The attacks also come as Russia doubled down on its longstanding position of declaring Western forces in Ukraine \u201clegitimate targets\u201d on Thursday, days after France and the UK pledged to send troops there in the event of a peace deal. Russia has long opposed the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n

\n And on Wednesday the United States forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean following a weeks-long chase on the high seas<\/a> which has escalated tensions with Moscow and piled further pressure on its ally Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russia condemned the seizure, with its transport ministry arguing \u201cno state has the right to use force against vessels that are properly registered in the jurisdictions of other nations\u201d under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty which the US has not signed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to comment on the developments related to the tanker, which the US had previously sanctioned for carrying illicit Iranian oil.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Russia attacked Ukraine with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile overnight Thursday, a rare use of one of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":503159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-503158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115863824028176842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}