Two days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in the country's policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. Then, on Thursday

Russian ballistic missile attack on Ukraine portends new era of warfare

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2024-11-22 20:30:14

Two days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in the country's policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. Then, on Thursday, Russia attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new type of ballistic missile capable of one day delivering multiple nuclear warheads to distant targets with little warning.

These events are just part of what has been a week of escalation in the war between Russia and Ukraine. In recent days, Ukraine fired US-made ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russian territory for the first time. This followed approval by President Joe Biden for Ukraine to use US-provided longer-range missiles against Russian targets. Previously, Ukraine was only permitted to use them on its own territory.

In a rare televised statement Thursday, Putin said he ordered Russia's military to strike Dnipro, home to Soviet-era rocket factories, using a ballistic missile named "Oreshnik." This means "hazelnut tree" in Russian. The attack was the first use of the Oreshnik missile "under combat conditions," Putin said.