Russia strikes western Ukraine with Oreshnik ballistic missile, one of its most advanced weapons

By Kosta Gak, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Rhea Mogul, Sana Noor Haq, CNN

Kyiv (CNN) — Russia fired a hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in western Ukraine overnight Thursday, near the border with NATO member Poland, in what has been labeled a brazen “warning” to the wider continent and the United States.

It marked the first time in more than a year that Moscow had unleashed the Oreshnik, which can contain multiple warheads and carry either conventional or nuclear payloads.

While Russia did not confirm the target of the Oreshnik missile fire, the country’s Ministry of Defense noted a “massive strike with high-precision long-range land and sea-based weapons, including the Oreshnik mobile medium-range ground-based missile system,” in a statement on Friday.

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched hundreds of air weapons in a barrage that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said targeted “energy facilities and civilian infrastructure” in multiple regions, including Kyiv. More than half a million households were without power in the Kyiv region Friday, with the capital’s mayor asking residents to leave the city temporarily to access power and heat elsewhere.

Russia said it launched its latest attack in response to Ukraine’s purported attempt to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s home last month. The CIA had assessed Ukraine was not targeting a residence used by Putin, according to US officials.

European allies issued a tide of condemnation against Moscow on Friday, revealing a widened gap between Russian and Western positions soon after intensive US-led peace talks broke down in December.

Ukrainian security officials accused Moscow of committing a “war crime,” warning that debris from the Oreshnik missile had been located in Lviv and “classified as material evidence.”

“SBU investigators classify the use of this weapon against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as a war crime on the part of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian security service said in a statement.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X that, “such a strike close to (the) EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community.”

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, cautioned in a post on X Friday: “Russia’s reported use of an Oreshnik missile is a clear escalation against Ukraine and meant as a warning to Europe and to the US.”

British defence secretary John Healey, who was visiting Kyiv on Friday, said the attack by Russia was “brutal” and “cynical.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

The three leaders agreed that “Russia’s ongoing attacks in Ukraine, including of the use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in Western Ukraine this morning, were escalatory and unacceptable,” according to a Downing Street statement. It added that Moscow was using “fabricated allegations to justify the attack.”

Russia used the Oreshnik missile for the first time in November 2024, striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, even though the weapon was not fully developed at the time.

Kyiv also said on Friday that Russia attacked two civilian vessels near Ukraine’s shores.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Moscow hit a Comoros Islands-flagged ship that was transporting soybeans near the port of Odesa. “As a result of the attack, unfortunately, a crew member, a Syrian citizen, was killed. This is a terrible war crime!,” he said on Telegram.

Another vessel, flying the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, was hit while heading to the nearby port of Chornomorsk to pick up grain cargo, Kuleba added.

‘Painful’ energy cuts in Kyiv

In addition to the Oreshnik, Russian forces launched 242 drones, 13 ballistic missiles and 22 cruise missiles, according to Zelensky, wiping out critical energy services to tens of thousands of Ukrainians.

A CNN reporter in Kyiv said the attack began around midnight, starting with multiple drone strikes on residential buildings.

Streetlights flickered before large parts of the city were plunged into darkness, as a thick fog settled over the streets and temperatures plummeted to –5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit).

At least four people were killed in the capital and 24 more injured, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health said on Friday. An ambulance crew member – 56-year-old Serhiy Smolyak – was among those killed in the Ukrainian capital, the health ministry added.

The Kremlin targeted “energy facilities and civilian infrastructure” in the Chernihiv and Kyiv regions, Zelensky posted on X. “The attack took place exactly when there was a significant cold spell. Aimed precisely against the normal life of ordinary people,” he said.

Moscow has depleted Ukrainian energy systems in recent weeks, against the backdrop of a biting winter freeze and failed diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year full-scale invasion.

“Last night’s combined attack on Kyiv was the most painful for the capital’s critical infrastructure,” the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, posted on Telegram. “Weather conditions are forecast to remain difficult in the coming days.”

In a rare instruction to residents, the mayor appealed to those “who have the opportunity” to travel to other regions of Ukraine, as authorities worked to restore electricity and heating to people’s homes.

As of midday on Friday, half of the capital’s mutli-apartment buildings, nearly 6,000 blocks, were “without heat” because of damage to the city’s critical infrastructure, according to Klitschko. The barrage also interrupted Kyiv’s water supply, while services are running on emergency mode, he said.

In total, more than 500,000 people in the Kyiv region are without power, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy. Further north, at least 3,000 people do not have electricity in the Chernihiv region.

One Kyiv resident told CNN she awoke to screams and thunderous explosions during the attack, which rendered her apartment “uninhabitable.”

“The doorway had been torn out of the bathroom and fallen on me in the hallway. And all the debris flew at me,” said 41-year-old Victoria Rudenko. “All the windows are broken, all the walls are cracked, everything is completely destroyed, and the flat needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

“Despite everything, I am alive, healthy, and thank God,” added Rudenko. “Our life is the most precious thing, and everything else is temporary. So. we continue to live.”

Qatar’s embassy in Kyiv was also damaged in the overnight strikes, Sybiha said. “We call on the Gulf States to respond through diplomatic channels and publicly to Russia’s irresponsible and dangerous actions,” Sybiha said.

CNN’s Caitlin Danaher and Max Foster contributed reporting.

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This story has been updated to correct the number of missiles Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired Thursday night.