The Kremlin launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile over Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kiev’s use this week of American and British missiles able to strike deeper into Russia, President Vladimir Putin said.

In a televised address to the country, the Russian president warned that US air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said was flying at ten times the speed of sound and which he named Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut. He also said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are being used to attack Russia.

“We believe we have the right to use our weapons against the military installations of countries that allow them to use their weapons against our installations,” Putin said in his first comments from President Joe Biden. gave Ukraine the green light this month to use the US ATACMS missiles to hit limited targets inside Russia.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that Russia’s missile is an experimental new type of intermediate-range missile based on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

“This was a new type of lethal capability that was being deployed on the battlefield, so it was certainly concerning,” Singh said, noting that the missile could carry conventional or nuclear warheads. The US was notified prior to launch by Nuclear Risk Reduction. channels, she said.

The attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro came in response to the use by Kiev longer range USA and British missiles in strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday in southern Russia, Putin said. Those strikes caused a fire at an ammunition depot in Russia’s Bryansk region and killed and wounded some members of the Kursk region’s security services, he said.

“In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in kind,” the Russian president said, adding that Western leaders making plans to use their forces against Moscow should “seriously think about it.”

Putin said the Oreshnik fired Thursday hit a known missile factory in Nipro. He also said Russia would issue advance warnings if it launched more Oreshnik strikes against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate safely – something Moscow had not done before previous airstrikes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially said Russia had not warned the US of the upcoming launch of the new missile, noting that it was not required to do so. But he later changed tack and said Moscow had issued a warning 30 minutes before the launch.

Putin’s announcement came hours after Ukraine claimed it Russia used an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Dnipro attack, which injured two people and damaged an industrial facility and a rehabilitation center for the disabled, according to local officials. But US officials said an initial US assessment indicated the strike was carried out with an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that the use of the missile was an “obvious and serious escalation of the scale and brutality of this war, a cynical violation of the UN Charter.”

He also said there had been “no strong global reaction” to the use of the missile, which he said could threaten other countries.

“Putin is very sensitive to this. They are testing you, dear partners,” Zelenskyy wrote. “If there is no tough response to Russia’s actions, it means they see that such actions are possible.”

The attack occurs during a week of rising tensionswhile the US eased restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range US-made missiles inside Russia and Putin lowered the threshold for launching nuclear weapons.

The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that the Dnipro attack was launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea.

“Today, our crazy neighbor once again showed what he really is,” Zelenskyy said hours before Putin’s speech. “And how afraid he is.”

Russia was sending a message by attacking Ukraine with an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even if they are less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles, said Matthew Savill, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London.

“So what could you use it for?” Savill said. “Signaling — signaling to the Ukrainians. We have things that upset you. But we are really signaling to the West: “We are happy to enter into a competition around intermediate-range ballistic missiles. PS: These could be nuclear tipped. do you want to take that risk?’”

Military experts say modern ICBMs and IRBMs are extremely difficult to intercept, although Ukraine has previously claimed to have stopped other weapons that Russia has described as “unstoppable”, including the Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched missile.

David Albright, of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said he was “skeptical” of Putin’s claim, adding that Russian technology is sometimes “not enough”.

He suggested that Putin “mocks the West to try to bring it down … like a braggart boasting and mocking his enemy.”

Earlier this week, the Biden administration authorized Ukraine to use those provided by the US, longer range missiles to strike deeper into Russia – a move that drew an angry response from Moscow.

A few days later, Ukraine fired several of the rockets in Russia, according to the Kremlin. On the same day, Putin signed a new doctrine which allows for a potential nuclear response to even a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is backed by a nuclear power.

The doctrine is broadly formulated to avoid a firm commitment to use nuclear weapons. In response, Western countries, including the US, said Russia had used irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior throughout the war to intimidate Ukraine and other nations.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Russia the formal lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons did not cause any change in US doctrine.

She dismissed fears that the decision to allow Ukraine to use Western missiles to strike deeper into Russia could escalate the war.

“They’re the ones escalating this,” she said of the Kremlin — in part because of a deluge of North Korean troops sent to the region.

More than 1,000 days at warRussia has the upper hand, with its larger army advancing into Donetsk and Ukrainian civilians suffering relentless drone and missile strikes.

Analysts and observers say loosening restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western missiles is unlikely to change the course of the war, but puts the Russian military in a more vulnerable position and could complicate logistics, which are crucial in the war.

Putin also warned that the move would mean Russia and NATO are at war.

“It’s an important move and it backfires, undermining the narrative that Putin was trying to establish that it was fine for Russia to rain down Iranian drones and North Korean missiles on Ukraine, but a reckless escalation for Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons. at legitimate targets in Russia,” said Peter Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser who is now in the House of Lords.

___ Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at