Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia is preparing a strike against Ukraine using a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, citing intelligence from Ukraine, the United States and Europe.
The warning came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine over a drone strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s military denied responsibility for the attack.
Possible strike
Zelenskiy said in a post on X that there were signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry. He said the specified intermediate-range weapons could be used in such an attack.
Russia has already attacked Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile Putin has said is impossible to intercept because of its reported speed of more than 10 times the speed of sound. Moscow first fired an Oreshnik against what it said was a military factory in Ukraine in November 2024.
On that occasion, Ukrainian sources said the missile carried dummy warheads rather than explosives and caused limited damage. The second attack took place in January 2026, when the missile struck the Lviv region in western Ukraine.
International response
Zelenskiy said Ukraine is drawing the attention of its partners in the United States and Europe to what he described as a global precedent for other potential aggressors if such weapons are used and the war is prolonged.
In January, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable.” Zelenskiy said Kyiv is counting on a response from the world that is “not post factum, but preventive.”
Would you support a preventive international response, as Zelenskiy urged?
