RUSSIA HAS SAID it has used the new Oreshnik ballistic missile in a massive strike on Ukraine.

Russia did not say where Oreshnik hit but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted a huge underground natural gas storage area in Ukraine’s western Lviv region.

Russia also targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv overnight in a separate attack, which  killed four people and damaged 20 residential buildings, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. 

He called for the world to act after the attack. 

“A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

“Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure,” he added.

Russia’s defence ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone strike on President Vladimir Putin’s residence last month. Ukraine and US president Donald Trump have rejected the Russian claim of the attack on Putin’s residence.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy said that Russia struck critical infrastructure with a ballistic missile but did not give details. He said the missile travelled at a speed of more than 8,000 miles per hour (12,900 km/h), and that the specific type of rocket was being investigated.

Russia first tested the Oreshnik – Russian for hazelnut tree – to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024.

Putin has bragged that Oreshnik’s multiple warheads plunge at speeds of up to Mach 10 and cannot be intercepted, and that several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack. Oreshnik can also carry nuclear weapons.

The Russian leader has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

After the overnight strike on Ukraine’s capital, those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, said Kyiv city military administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Five rescue workers sustained injuries while responding to the site of ongoing attacks, said Ukraine’s security service.

In the Desnyanskyi district a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-storey building. At another address in the same district the first two floors of a residential building were damaged.

In Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multi-storey building and a fire broke out.

Running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of the capital as a result of the attack, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The attack took place just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia’s intentions for a large-scale offensive. He said that Russia aimed to take advantage of the freezing weather in the capital, making roads and streets perilously icy.