Following an overnight missile and drone attack by Russia targeting Ukraine’s key energy infrastructure, Russian President Vladimir Putin now says that government buildings in Kyiv could be targeted next using a new hypersonic missile that could also potentially reach the U.S.

Russian attacks have not so far struck “decision-making centers” in the Ukrainian capital as Kyiv is heavily protected by air defenses. But Putin says Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which it fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted.

Russia fired the Oreshnik at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21, striking a weapons production plant. This was in retaliation against Ukrainian strikes on a Russian military facility in Bryansk two days earlier with U.S. made long-range missiles called ATACMS, after President Biden had given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy permission to do so.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES ANOTHER LARGE MISSILE, DRONE ATTACK ON UKRAINE’S ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE

Russia says Ukraine fired more ATACMS at its Kursk region on Nov. 23 and Nov. 25.

“Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on November 21,” Putin told a meeting of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries in Kazakhstan.

“At present, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defense and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centers in Kyiv,” he said.

The instrumentations of the Oreshnik missile – its sensors, electronics, data acquisition capabilities – are those of the Rubezh, a Russian solid-fueled intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). With its flight capability of between 310 miles and 3,100 miles – just 310 miles below the standard low limit of an ICBM – the Oreshnik can target most of Europe and the West Coast of the United States. After a launch, such a missile could probably hit Britain in 20 minutes and Poland in 12 minutes.

The Oreshnik can be outfitted with a non-nuclear or nuclear warhead. And it is nearly impossible to intercept by existing missile defense systems because it is designed to fly at hypersonic speeds, reaching Mach 11.

Putin said Russia’s production of advanced missile systems exceeds that of the NATO military alliance by 10 times, and that Moscow planned to ramp up production further.

His plans to increase production and ongoing strikes mean the conflict – which has already passed 1,000 days – shows no signs of abating. 

Russia unleashed a massive aerial drone and missile attack on Ukraine on Thursday targeting the country’s key energy infrastructure, leaving more than a million households without power in the west, south and center of the country, Ukrainian officials said.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES RECORD NUMBER OF DRONES IN NEW ATTACK

Firefighters put out a fire caused by a Russian drone and missile attack. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via X)

The attack consisted of firing nearly 200 missiles and drones with explosions being reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk and many other cities in central and western Ukraine.

The operation was Russia’s second major aerial attack on Ukraine’s power grid in less than two weeks, with President Vladimir Putin saying on Thursday that the attack was a response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian regions using longer-range American missiles.

The attack has raised fears in Ukraine that Russia is looking to cripple its energy infrastructure before the winter cold starts to bite and dampen Ukrainian spirits about the outcome of the war.

Zelenskyy said that the attack was a “vile escalation” and that Kalibr cruise missiles with cluster munitions were used to deliberately target civilian infrastructure.

“The use of these cluster elements significantly complicates the work of our rescuers and power engineers in mitigating the damage, marking yet another vile escalation in Russia’s terrorist tactics,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

He urged Western countries to deliver on promised air defense weaponry. Ukrainian officials in the past have grumbled that military aid is slow to arrive.

The Thursday attack came just hours after President-elect Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg for a potential new post focused on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The attack came just hours after President-elect Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg for a potential new post focused on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump has created the position of special envoy for the Ukraine conflict,

Three sources familiar told Reuters that Kellogg presented Trump with a plan to end the conflict, and in April co-authored a research document that presented the idea of using weapons supplied to Ukraine as leverage for armistice negotiations with Russia.

Rebekah Koffler, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Dozens of houses in six villages of Bulambuli district in eastern Uganda submerged in landsides triggered by heavy rainfall.

More than 10 people have been killed and many others are feared dead after heavy rains caused landslides in eastern Uganda.

The Uganda Red Cross Society said on Thursday at least 13 bodies had been recovered after landslides “completely buried” 40 homes in six villages of the mountainous district of Bulambuli the previous night.

Images on local media showed huge swaths of fallen earth covering the land in the village of Masugu, about a five-hour drive from the capital, Kampala. Videos and photographs shared on social media purported to show people digging for survivors in the village of Kimono.

The Uganda Red Cross Society said the rescue effort was continuing but the death toll was likely to rise.

“We lost about 30 people,” district commissioner Faheera Mpalanyi told the AFP news agency, adding that six bodies, including that of a baby, had been recovered so far.

“Given the devastation and the size of the area affected and from what the affected families are telling us, several people are missing and probably buried in the debris,” she said.

The heavy rains in recent days caused flooding in the northwest after a tributary of the Nile River burst its banks, prompting the prime minister’s office to issue a disaster alert on Wednesday, saying that main roads across the country had been cut off.

Emergency teams were sent to rescue stranded motorists.

A road connecting the country with South Sudan was impassable late on Wednesday, with emergency boat crews deployed near the town of Pakwach.

“Unfortunately, one of the boats capsized, resulting in the death of one engineer,” Uganda’s defence forces said on X.

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