Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia fired a new, nonnuclear intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine, part of a wide-ranging TV address that sharply criticized the U.S. for escalating the war.
Putin said Russia had refrained from firing intermediate-range missiles but decided to carry out the test on Thursday after the U.S. allowed Ukraine to fire long-range missiles at targets inside his country.
“And further actions will be considered and decided based on what we see from them,” Putin said. “It is not Russia but the United States who have decided to destroy a system of international security.”
Ukrainian forces had earlier claimed that Russia fired at Ukraine an intercontinental ballistic missile, which is designed to hit targets thousands of miles away. It did not say what the impact of the launch was.
But Putin said Russia fired an experimental intermediate ballistic missile that can reach speeds of Mach 10, or more than 7,000 mph. Intermediate-range ballistic missiles can hit targets up to 3,500 miles away.
The missile, which was equipped with a nonnuclear hypersonic warhead, struck a military command center in Ukraine, Putin claimed.
Russia’s ballistic missile test still raises the stakes in the war as Putin has vowed to respond to the U.S. authorizing Ukraine to launch the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in Russia, something he has referred to as a red line for months.
Putin earlier this week lowered the nuclear threshold in response to the Biden administration authorizing ATACMS, renewing fears that he could deploy a nuclear weapon against Ukraine. The Kremlin said conventional missiles from a nuclear-armed nation being fired into Russia by Ukraine could trigger a nuclear response.
The White House has yet to publicly confirm that it has approved Ukraine’s use of ATACMS, but U.S. officials have pointed to Russia deploying thousands of North Korean troops against Ukraine as the escalation, not the long-range missile authorization.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that the “escalation at every turn, at every step, is coming from Russia.”
“They’re the ones that are escalating this,” she said. “This is an aggression from their side.”
Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was aware of the ballistic missile launch and reiterated that the White House views Putin’s saber-rattling as “irresponsible rhetoric.”
Putin on Thursday said the ATACMS missiles have already been used in the Russian regions of Kursk and Bryansk, confirming earlier reports from officials in Russia. He claimed that the ATACMS were largely countered by Russia but still wounded and killed Russian officials.
Putin also expressed confidence in his forces, saying they were “advancing along the entire line of contact” in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops are defending against a larger Russian army. Russia, however, has taken heavy losses in the advance.
Putin said that because of the complexity involving ATACMS, the U.S. is directly involved in the firing of the systems at Russia and threatened that Russia was prepared for a response.
“The ruling elites of the countries that are nurturing plans to use their military contingents against Russia should be warned,” Putin said.
