KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental hypersonic ballistic missile which escalated the nearly 33-month war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase”, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday, and “having very dramatic dimensions”.

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised address that the Oreshnik medium-range missile attack was retaliation for Kiev’s use of American and British longer-range missiles able to strike deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Ukrainian military officials said the missile that struck Dnipro reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six non-nuclear warheads, each releasing six submunitions.

Speaking to military and armaments industry officials on Friday, Putin said Russia was launching Oreshnik production.

“Nobody in the world has weapons like that,” he said with a thin smile. “Sooner or later other leading countries will get them too. We are aware that they are developing.”

But he added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Testing of the missile will continue, “including in combat, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats created for Russia,” Putin said, noting that there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use.”

Putin said that while it is not an ICBM, it is so powerful that using several of them equipped with conventional warheads in a single attack could be as devastating as a strike with strategic or nuclear weapons.

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, said the Oreshnik could hit targets across Europe and could be equipped with nuclear or conventional warheads, echoing Putin’s claim that even with conventional warheads, “ massive use of the weapon would be comparable in effect. to the use of nuclear weapons.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov maintained Russia’s belligerent tone on Friday, blaming “reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying Ukraine with weapons to hit Russia.

“The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions if our concerns are not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined,” he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely regarded as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow’s talking points, suggesting that the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely required direct American involvement.

“These are missiles that are fired and then guided to a target by an electronic system, which requires the most advanced technology and satellite communications capability in the world,” Orbán said on state radio. “There is a strong presumption … that these missiles cannot be guided without the help of US personnel.”

Orbán warned against underestimating Russia’s responses, stressing that the country’s recent changes to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff”. “It’s not a trick … there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately, in Kiev, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday’s missile strike an “escalating step and an attempt by the Russian dictator to scare the people of Ukraine and to scare the people of Europe.”

At a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for the provision of additional air defense systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from “heinous attacks”.

He emphasized that the Czech Republic will not impose limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday’s previously scheduled session had been suspended due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kiev.

In addition, there was also a recommendation to limit the activity of all commercial offices and non-governmental organizations “in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said deputy Mykyta Poturaiev, who added that it was not the first time a such a threat. threat was received.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office continued to work in accordance with standard security measures, a spokesman said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name means “hazelnut” in Russian, was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4 missile test range in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew 15 minutes before hitting Dnipro.

Test launches of a similar missile were carried out in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed that the missile is an experimental new type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday’s attack hit the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military installation is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of downtown Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid and hosts one. among the largest hospitals in the country for treating wounded soldiers at the front before their transfer to Kiev or abroad.

The affected area was cordoned off and kept from public view. With no deaths reported from the attack, residents of Dnipro resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential neighborhood in Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and wounding 13, the regional administration said.

Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne, citing Sumy regional chief Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were filled with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” Artiukh said, according to Suspilne.

—— Associated Press reporters Lorne Cook in Brussels, Samya Kullab in Kiev, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary contributed.

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