Ukraine’s SBU security service on Friday confirmed Russia fired its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on the western Lviv region close to the EU border and published pictures it said were of the weapon’s fragments.
Moscow said it had launched the missile, which travels at hypersonic speeds and which the Kremlin says is impossible to intercept, but did not say what it had targeted.
“By attacking civilian targets in our country near the border with the European Union, the Kremlin attempted to destroy the region’s life-support infrastructure amid sharply deteriorating weather conditions,” the SBU said.
Ukraine also did not clarify what had been targeted or the extent of any damage.
Among the parts found so far were the missile’s stabilisation and guidance unit, engine parts and nozzles, the SBU said.
It was the first confirmation from either side that the missile had been fired specifically at the Lviv region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s defense ministry previously reported the missile had been fired, but did not clarify where, though Lviv officials had reported large blasts from a ballistic missile strike.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said earlier Friday that a ballistic missile flying at 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) per hour had been fired at the region, without naming it as the Oreshnik.
Russian military bloggers said a gas storage site had been targeted.
Sadovy said only that there had been a strike on a “critical infrastructure facility” which had triggered a fire.
