{"id":503651,"date":"2026-01-09T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503651\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:56:10","slug":"russia-says-it-used-new-oreshnik-missile-against-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503651\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia says it used new Oreshnik missile against Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Friday, killing at least four people. For only the second time, it used a new ballistic missile<\/a> that it says flies at 10 times the speed of sound and is unstoppable.<\/p>\n

The intense barrage and the launching of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress<\/a> toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a peace deal is struck to end Russia\u2019s almost 4-year-old invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Months of U.S.-led peace efforts<\/a> have failed to stop the fighting, however. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has made significant progress on the terms of a possible peace settlement<\/a> in talks with Washington envoys. But Moscow has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its demands.<\/p>\n

The attack also coincides with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington<\/a> after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled he is on board<\/a> with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow. <\/p>\n

Kyiv apartment buildings left without heating<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 25 wounded in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during the overnight attack as apartment buildings were struck.<\/p>\n

Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Four doctors and one police officer sustained injuries while responding to the ongoing attacks, authorities said.<\/p>\n

About half of snowy Kyiv\u2019s apartment buildings \u2014 nearly 6,000 \u2014 were left without heating, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The water supply was also disrupted.<\/p>\n

Municipal services restored power and heating to public facilities, including hospitals and maternity wards, using mobile boiler units, he said<\/p>\n

The attack damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, according to Zelenskyy. He noted that Qatar has played a key role in mediating the exchange of prisoners of war.<\/p>\n

He called for a \u201cclear response\u201d from the international community, particularly from the United States, which he said Russia takes seriously.<\/p>\n

Moscow says attack was retaliation<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s residence last month. Both Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump have rejected the Russian claim<\/a> of the attack on Putin\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n

Putin has previously said that the Oreshnik streaks to its target at Mach 10, \u201clike a meteorite,\u201d and has claimed it is immune to any missile defense system. Several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack, according to Putin, who has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allow it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles. <\/p>\n

Ukrainian intelligence says the missile has six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. <\/p>\n

Russia didn\u2019t say where Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted a huge underground natural gas storage facility in Ukraine\u2019s western Lviv region. Western military aid flows to Ukraine from a big supply hub in Poland just across the border from Lviv.<\/p>\n

Russia first used the Oreshnik missile<\/a> on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Analysts say it affords Russia a new element of psychological warfare, unnerving Ukrainians and scaring Western countries that supply weaponry to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ukraine seeks international support as the pope weighs in<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council. <\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia\u2019s reckless actions,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Vatican on Friday, urged the international community to keep pushing for peace and end the suffering in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaced with this tragic situation, the Holy See strongly reiterates the pressing need for an immediate ceasefire, and for dialogue motivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace,\u201d the pontiff told ambassadors to the Vatican from around the world.<\/p>\n

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that Russia struck critical infrastructure with a ballistic missile, but didn\u2019t give details. He said the missile traveled at a speed of 13,000 kilometers (more than 8,000 miles) per hour \u2014 which would be around Mach 10 \u2014 and that the specific type of rocket was being investigated. <\/p>\n

Attacks hit Kyiv apartment blocks<\/p>\n

In Kyiv, several districts were hit in the attack, according to Tkachenko, the city\u2019s military administration chief. In the Desnyanskyi district a drone crashed onto the roof of a multistory building. At another address in the same district the first two floors of a residential building were damaged. <\/p>\n

In Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.<\/p>\n

Dmytro Karpenko\u2019s windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor\u2019s house was on fire, he rushed out to help him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying,\u201d the 45-year old said. <\/p>\n

The attack took place just hours after Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia\u2019s intentions for a large-scale offensive. He said that Russia aimed to take advantage of the frigid weather in the capital that has made roads and streets perilously icy.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

A previous version of this story corrected the style on Andriy Sadoviy to Andrii Sadovyi.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":503652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4219,69,56270,440,57,37593,13342,24531,50,80,3417,257,3657,273,3660,32547,274,3656,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-503651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-kyiv","14":"tag-military-technology","15":"tag-moscow","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-ukraine-government","23":"tag-vitali-klitschko","24":"tag-vladimir-putin","25":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115865019074702088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503651","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=503651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}