In a stark warning to Western international locations arming Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned Thursday he ordered an assault on Ukraine with a brand new intermediate-range ballistic missile in response to Ukraine’s firing U.S.- and British-supplied longer-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia.

Putin mentioned in a televised deal with that the strike was a “check” of a brand new weapon and that Russia reserved the precise to strike at international locations that present weapons to Ukraine for assaults on Russian territory.

Deputy Protection Division press secretary Sabrina Singh instructed reporters that the missile was a brand new, experimental kind of intermediate-range ballistic missile primarily based on the design of the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

“This was a brand new kind of deadly functionality that was deployed on the battlefield, in order that was definitely of concern,” Singh mentioned.

Russia notified U.S. officers concerning the imminent assault, utilizing nuclear threat discount communication channels, she mentioned. The missile can carry a traditional or a nuclear warhead.

In his speech, Putin warned international locations sending weapons to Ukraine that Russia might goal them, too.

“We consider that we have now the precise to make use of our weapons in opposition to navy services of the international locations that enable to make use of their weapons in opposition to our services,” Putin mentioned, based on The Related Press. 

Russia has loads of different less-sophisticated weapons that would have hit targets in jap Ukraine with out drawing on its strategic arsenal. Through the use of an intermediate-range missile, a weapon capable of strike far past Ukraine and may carry a nuclear warhead, Moscow was sending a warning sign to Ukraine, Washington and different NATO states, analysts mentioned.

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles have a variety of lower than 3,500 miles. Intercontinental ballistic missiles, which have a bigger vary of over 3,500 miles, had been developed in the course of the Chilly Conflict by each the Soviet Union and the U.S. as a part of both sides’s nuclear arsenal.

Biden administration officers briefed Ukraine and different allies in latest days about Russia’s presumably utilizing the brand new weapon to assist them put together, based on a U.S. official.

However the U.S. official mentioned Russia wouldn’t be capable of bully Ukraine, the U.S. or different international locations serving to Kyiv fend off invading Russian forces. 

“Russia could also be in search of to make use of this functionality to attempt to intimidate Ukraine and its supporters or generate consideration within the data area, nevertheless it is not going to be a sport changer on this battle,” the U.S. official mentioned.

The administration will proceed to ship air protection techniques, ammunition and different navy {hardware} to Ukraine by way of the top of President Joe Biden’s time period, officers mentioned.

The information comes as Ukrainian forces used their first long-range U.S. and British missiles to strike Russian soil after Washington and its allies lifted restrictions on Kyiv — a transfer that Moscow had lengthy warned can be met with a major response.

Putin this week lowered the bar for his nation’s use of a nuclear weapon, a transfer that Western officers dismissed as the most recent occasion of Russian saber rattling within the conflict, which has lasted greater than 1,000 days.

‘Utilizing Ukraine as a coaching floor’

Earlier Thursday, Ukraine accused Moscow of launching an ICBM on the jap metropolis of Dnipro in an in a single day assault, which might have been the primary recorded use of an ICBM in an energetic battle and the most recent escalation by the Kremlin.

However a U.S. official disputed that account, after which Putin himself got here out and recognized the weapon as an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Serhii Lysak, the top of the Dnipro regional authority, mentioned on Telegram that two folks had been injured. In the meantime, 15 folks had been injured in a separate assault on the jap metropolis of Kryvyi Rih, native authorities mentioned.  

Putin on Tuesday formally revised his nation’s nuclear doctrine — a doc detailing the situations beneath which Moscow would think about using nuclear weapons — with the change justifying a nuclear strike by Russia if it had been attacked by a nonnuclear nation that was supported by a nuclear state.

Finally, analysts say, the chance of the Kremlin’s opting to make use of nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine may be very slim — notably now, when its navy is advancing and its opponent is worn down.

Russian forces have seized the momentum in latest months and eked out a succession of territorial good points, notably on the jap entrance strains. They’ve additionally been bolstered by 1000’s of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un’s troops of their quest to retake occupied land in Russia’s Kursk border area.

The West’s stress-free restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons might increase Kyiv, however it’s possible do little to rework the battlefield state of affairs, analysts mentioned, regardless of the dire nature of the Kremlin’s rhetorical response.

“At this stage within the conflict, the danger of Russian nuclear use is decrease than earlier than. Political and battlefield developments favor Russia, so there’s little to realize by escalating the battle to the nuclear degree,” mentioned Alexander Bollfrass, head of technique, expertise and arms management on the London-based Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research assume tank. 

Along with the unclear navy advantages of deploying these weapons, there would even be diplomatic drawbacks. 

“Nuclear weapons use would threat alienating China and different non-Western international locations whose assist or neutrality is vital to sustaining the Russian conflict economic system,” Bollfrass mentioned in an electronic mail Wednesday. “It might additionally get the connection with the incoming Trump administration off to a really harmful begin.”