Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Saturday that Russia is gearing up to launch an attack against Ukraine utilizing a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, based on intelligence gathered from Ukraine, the United States, and European sources.
This alert follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s directive to his armed forces on Friday to develop retaliatory options against Ukraine following a drone attack that hit a student dormitory in the Russian-occupied Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian military officials have rejected any involvement in that dormitory attack.
“We are seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry. The specified intermediate-range weapons could be used in such a strike,” Zelenskiy wrote in a post on X, without referencing the drone incident.
Moscow has previously deployed the Oreshnik weapon against Ukraine on two occasions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed this missile cannot be intercepted due to its reported speed exceeding 10 times the velocity of sound.
Russia initially launched an Oreshnik at what it described as a Ukrainian military manufacturing facility in November 2024. Ukrainian officials reported that the weapon carried non-explosive dummy warheads during that strike, resulting in minimal destruction.
A second strike occurred in January 2026, with the missile hitting the Lviv region in Ukraine’s western territory.
“We are drawing the attention of our partners in the United States and in Europe to the fact that the use of such weapons and the prolongation of this war also sets a global precedent for other potential aggressors,” Zelenskiy stated.
In January, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany characterized Russia’s deployment of an Oreshnik ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable.”
Zelenskiy emphasized that Kyiv expects a global response and seeks “a response that is not post factum, but preventive.”
He added that international pressure must be applied to Moscow to prevent the conflict from expanding further.
