Putin firing new ballistic missile makes threat of global war real, Poland warns

There is a real risk of a global conflict breaking out over the Ukraine war, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk warned.

Mr Tusk said the conflict was taking on “dramatic proportions” with the threat of global conflict “serious and real”.

It comes after Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at a the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday.

“The war in the east is entering a decisive phase, we feel that the unknown is approaching,” Tusk told a teachers conference.

“The conflict is taking on dramatic proportions. The last few dozen hours have shown that the threat is serious and real when it comes to global conflict.”

On Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the strike was a response to the US and UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons.

Ukraine’s air force initially said the missile was an intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) – the kind that Russia could hit the United States with.

But the US military later said the weapon was an intermediate-range missile (IRBM) based on the design of Russia’s longer-range RS-26 ICBM missile

The Pentagon said it was fired with a conventional warhead but Moscow could modify it if it wanted, with Russia only possessing a handful of them.

“It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.

The Kremlin said on Friday that a strike on Ukraine using a newly developed hypersonic ballistic missile was a message to the West that Moscow will respond harshly to any “reckless” Western actions in support of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was speaking a day after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had fired the new missile – the Oreshnik or Hazel Tree – at a Ukrainian military facility in response to Kyiv striking Russia with U.S.-made and British-made missiles this week for the first time after the US granted its approval.

“The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side,” Peskov said.

While launching an IRBM sent a less threatening signal, the incident could still set off alarms and Moscow notified Washington briefly ahead of the launch, according to US officials.

Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said it could carry six to eight conventional or nuclear warheads, and was probably already in service.

Putin said the missile travelled at 10 times the speed of sound and so could not be intercepted, with Russian sources saying the range was 3,1000 miles.

It also appeared to have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles: separate warheads able to hit different targets.

The Russian missile that struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday flew for 15 minutes and reached a maximum speed of beyond Mach 11, Kyiv’s top spy agency said on Friday.

“The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment of its launch in the Astrakhan region to its impact in the city of Dnipro was 15 minutes,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence said in a statement, adding that the weapon was “likely from the ‘Kedr’ missile complex.

“The missile was equipped with six warheads: each equipped with six submunitions. The speed at the final part of the trajectory was over Mach 11.”

While launching an IRBM sent a less threatening signal, the incident could still set off alarms and Moscow notified Washington briefly ahead of the launch, according to US officials.

Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said it could carry six to eight conventional or nuclear warheads, and was probably already in service.

Putin said the missile travelled at 10 times the speed of sound and so could not be intercepted, with Russian sources saying the range was 3,1000 miles.

It also appeared to have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles: separate warheads able to hit different targets.

Ukraine’s air force initially said the missile was an intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) – the kind that Russia could hit the United States with.

But the US military later said the weapon was an intermediate-range missile (IRBM) based on the design of Russia’s longer-range RS-26 ICBM missile

The Pentagon said it was fired with a conventional warhead but Moscow could modify it if it wanted, with Russia only possessing a handful of them.

“It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.