Russia deployed its hypersonic Oreshnik missile during a large-scale attack on Ukraine on Friday that killed four people.
Moscow said the attack was in response to the supposed drone attack on Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s residence in December – the allegation Ukraine and the US have rejected as false. Ukraine confirmed the Oreshnik missile attack took place near the country’s EU border. Ukraine’s foreign minister said the use of an Oreshnik missile so close to the EU and Nato border posed a “grave threat” to European security. The ministry called on Kyiv’s western allies to increase pressure on Moscow. Kyiv also dismissed Russia’s attempts to justify the strike, calling them “absurd”. Ukraine's security service said it considered the use of the missile a war crime.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media that a Russian drone hit the embassy of Qatar in his country, noting that the Gulf country played an important mediating role to facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war between Moscow and Kyiv. Zelenskiy called for a "clear response" to the attack from the international community, particularly from the United States, which he said Russia takes seriously.
Overall, Russia fired hundreds of dozens of drones and dozens of missiles across Ukraine on the night leading o January 9. The intense barrage and the deployment of hypersonic Oreshnik missile came days after a major progress in peace talks between Ukraine and its allies over the end of the nearly four-year-war with Russia.
The attack also came on the heels of the worsening of US-Russia ties after Moscow condemned Washington’s seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker in the North Atlantic.
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