NATO and Ukraine are set to gather in an emergency meeting next Tuesday following Russia’s attack on the central city of Dnipro in Ukraine with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic intermediate missile (the first time in a real war theater) that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.
The attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile at a speed of 10 Mach was in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles—ATACMS and Storm Shadow—capable of striking deeper into Russian territory. The UK missiles struck in the region of Kursk in western Russia, reportedly killing Russian soldiers and damaging a military command center.
The strike was carried out without warheads fitted on the missiles against an underground military facility, with multiple videos that emerged online revealing the extent of devastating speed with which the projectiles hit the target.
Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister, warned on Friday the conflict was entering a decisive phase, taking on very dramatic dimensions.
After the attack, the Ukrainian parliament called off a session as a precautionary measure, while President Zelensky called on Ukraine’s NATO allies for more deterrent power.
In a direct warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech after the attack that any Western anti-missile system could not intercept the weapon.
Ukrainian military officials said the missile that hit Dnipro had reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six nonnuclear warheads, each releasing six submunitions.
The US said it had been informed via military back channels about the attack by Russia.
Meanwhile, according to a senior Ukrainian military official, Ukraine has lost more than 40% of the territory it captured in Russia’s Kursk region during a surprise incursion last August.
The source, reportedly from Ukraine’s General Staff, stated that Russian forces have mounted waves of counterattacks to reclaim lost ground. Since Ukraine’s forces advanced rapidly into the area—catching Moscow off guard 2.5 years after the invasion—Russia has reportedly deployed approximately 59,000 troops to the Kursk region.
The developments mark a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict as both sides continue to vie for strategic advantage in contested border territories.
