President Zelenskiy denies attacking the Russian presidential palace
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia’s claims were an attempt to undermine peace talks between the two countries.
The Russian military announced on Friday, January 9, that it had launched hypersonic Oleshnik missiles at targets in Ukraine as part of a large-scale overnight attack on energy facilities and drone manufacturing sites in the country.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was in response to an attempted drone attack by Ukraine on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences in late December. Kiev has insisted that Russia’s claims that it tried to attack residential buildings in Russia’s Novgorod region are “lies.”
The governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region had earlier said the Russian attack had hit an infrastructure target, but unconfirmed reports on social media said it was a large underground gas storage facility. Reuters could not confirm that.
Ukrainian media cited the Ukrainian Air Force as saying that a ballistic missile was used in the attack, which was traveling at a speed of about 8,000 miles per hour.
In November 2024, the Russian government first launched an oreshnik (meaning hazel tree in Russian) at a suspected military factory in Ukraine. At the time, Ukrainian intelligence sources said the missile was loaded with a dummy warhead, not an explosive, and the damage was limited.
Putin said the medium-range Oleshnik missile is impossible to intercept because it reportedly travels more than 10 times the speed of sound, and its destructive power is comparable to nuclear weapons even when equipped with a conventional warhead.
Some Western officials have expressed skepticism about Oleshnik’s abilities. A U.S. official said in December 2024 that the weapon is not considered game-changing on the battlefield.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborne; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
