The war in Ukraine is entering a “decisive phase”, with Vladimir Putin's launch of a new ballistic missile showing that the threat of global conflict is “serious and real”, the Polish prime minister said.
Donald Tusk's warning came as NATO and Ukrainian officials held emergency talks over the hypersonic ballistic missile attack on Dnipro.
Putin said the launch was in response to Ukraine using British and American long-range missiles on targets in Russia – and strongly threatened that Moscow “had the right” to attack any Western nation that supplied Kiev with such weapons. And he vowed to continue using the new missile “in combat conditions” – a threat to both Ukraine and the West.
Mr Tusk made clear the danger in Ukraine, which shares a border with Poland: “The war in the east is entering a decisive phase; we feel the unknown approaching. The conflict is taking on dramatic proportions. The past dozens of hours have shown that the threat is serious and real when it comes to global conflict.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the world must mount a “serious response” to Putin's firing of the missile to show there are “real consequences.” He added that his Defense Ministry was already working with allies and partners to develop air defenses to protect against the “new risks” his country faces.
A session of the Ukrainian parliament was canceled on Friday as security measures were tightened following the attack on Dnipro.
Flashes after the missile attack on Dnipro in Ukraine (Come Back Alive/AFP via Getty)
This week, Ukraine used British-made Storm Shadow missiles and US-made tactical missile systems (ATACMS) to attack targets in Russia, after months of pleading by Mr Zelensky for permission to use the missiles, whose range is between the is 240 and 300 kilometers. .
Russia has stepped up its threats against the West in response. On Tuesday, the 1,000th day of his invasion of Ukraine, Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any country backed by a nuclear force would be considered a joint attack on its country.
US military officials said the design of the Russian missile was based on the design of Russia's longer-range RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. The new missile was experimental and Russia is likely to possess only a handful of them, officials said.
The Pentagon said the missile was fired with a conventional warhead, but added that Moscow could modify it if it wanted to. “It could be adapted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.
After initially identifying the missile as an ICBM, Kiev's top spy agency said it flew for 15 minutes and reached a maximum speed of more than Mach 11, or eleven times the speed of sound.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (EPA)
“The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment of launch in the Astrakhan region to its impact in the city of Dnipro was 15 minutes,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) said in a statement.
“The missile was equipped with six nuclear warheads, each equipped with six submunitions. The speed on the last part of the route was more than Mach 11.”
The HUR added that the weapon likely came from the Kedr missile complex, a Russian ballistic missile program.
Putin said on Friday that Russia would continue field testing the hypersonic Oreshnik missile and begin serial production of the new system. He claimed that it could not be intercepted by an enemy.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the Kremlin's closest allies in Europe, warned against underestimating Russia's responses and said the changes to nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.”
“It's not a trick, there will be consequences,” he said.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavski called the Russian missile attack an “escalating step and an attempt.” [by] the Russian dictator to scare the people of Ukraine and the people of Europe.”
British Defense Secretary Maria Eagle said Britain would remain firm on Ukraine and its European allies. “We've heard this kind of irresponsible rhetoric from [Putin] before,” she said. “We cannot be deterred from supporting Ukraine, and we will not.”
Failure to resist Russian aggression would entail “serious costs” for Europe, she added.
Sir Keir Starmer was asked on Friday whether Britain was at war.
“No, we are not at war, but Ukraine certainly is, because Ukraine has been invaded by Russia, and that war has been going on for just over a thousand days,” he said.
“That is a thousand days of aggression from Russia and a thousand days of sacrifice for Ukraine, and that is why we have consistently said that we support Ukraine,” he added. “We cannot allow Putin to win this war.”
