Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to attack decision-making centres in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with the country’s new ballistic missile, Oreshnik.
Putin was speaking hours after Russia launched a “comprehensive” strike on Ukraine’s energy grid overnight, in what he called a response to “continued attacks” using US-supplied Atacms missiles on Russian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that any “Russian blackmail” would be met with a “tough response”.
Ukraine used Atacms and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russian territory last week for the first time since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, following approval by the Western suppliers, the US, the UK and France.
The overnight Russian strike unfolded over several hours with waves of drones and missiles flying across the length and breadth of Ukraine - the second attack of its kind this month.
There were no fatalities, but it left more than one million people in Ukraine without power.
Zelensky said cluster munitions had been used against civilian and energy infrastructure.
“Cluster warheads [are] a particularly dangerous type of Russian weaponry used against civilians,” he said, adding that they “significantly complicated” the work of rescuers and repair crews.
Putin said the Russia attack involving 90 missiles and 100 drones also included the “Oreshnik” - a new ballistic missile which, according to Putin, cannot be intercepted.
US officials believe Russia is likely only to have a small number of the experimental Oreshnik missiles and would need time to produce more of them.