WASHINGTON: Russia notified the United States of an incoming ballistic missile attack on Ukraine shortly before Thursday’s strike, the Pentagon confirmed on Friday.
“The US was pre-notified briefly before the launch through Nuclear Risk Reduction channels,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.
The IRBM was based on Russia’s RS-26 “Rubezh” intercontinental ballistic missile model, she said.
Russia Says Notified US before Firing ICBM at Ukraine
Earlier, Russian state media cited the Kremlin’s spokesman as saying that Russia informed the United States that it was going to launch a new hypersonic missile 30 minutes before firing it at Ukraine.
“The Russian side warned the Americans about the launch of ‘Oreshnik’,” through an automatic nuclear de-escalation hotline, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency, using Russia’s name for the missile.
Putin said earlier that Russia had test-fired a new type of hypersonic intermediate-range missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that was equipped with a non-nuclear warhead.
He said that Moscow has the right to strike military installations of countries whose weapons are used by Ukraine to hit Russian territory.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said in a televised address to the nation.
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Putin was speaking after the Russian Defence Ministry said Ukraine fired US-made long-range missiles and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia.
Peskov said Russia’s National Centre for the Reduction of Nuclear Danger sent a message to a similar service in the United States “automatically” 30 minutes before the planned launch, TASS reported.
Kyiv had accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), but said tests were being carried out on debris to ascertain which type of weapon and warhead were used, AFP reported.
Russia on Thursday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine for the first time, Kyiv claimed, marking the latest escalation of the conflict after Ukraine fired Western-supplied long-range missiles on Russia.
The Ukrainian air force claimed in a statement that Russian forces in the morning had launched several types of missiles at the central city of Dnipro, targeting critical infrastructure.
CNN, and AFP cited the Ukrainian air force as claiming Russian forces had used the missile in an early morning attack on the city of Dnipro.
“In particular, an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation,” the statement claimed.
It was the first such use of the weapon by Russia since the invasion in 2022.
