Ukraine's military says Russian ICBM strikes Dnipro, a claim denied by Western official
By: Kevin Shalvey, Patrick Reevell, and Luis Martinez (ABC News)
The unbiased liberal press is hard at it again. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Not long ago Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel - and - bragged about it. That was a yawner for the unbiased liberal press. Yet, that means Iran has the capability of striking targets 700 miles away with nuclear warheads.
Do these early edition warriors realize that the ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles supplied to Ukraine are capable of carrying nuclear warheads? The United States has deliberately given Ukraine the ability to deliver nuclear weapons. No doubt some in Moscow are concerned that the US could fire off a nuke and blame Russia. Are we supposed to believe that Ukraine won't reverse-engineer these 'advanced' weapons to build their own versions?
Ukraine was given permission(?) to use longer range weapons supplied by the US and UK. (Any doubts that Zelensky is a puppet and who is pulling the strings?) Russia raised that bet by using weapons out of the range of ATACMS and Storm Shadows. So, what will Zelensky be demanding now?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
November 21, 2024, LONDON and KYIV -- Russia on Thursday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile toward southeastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, but two U.S. officials told ABC News it was instead an intermediate-range ballistic missile, or IRBM.
Ukraine's military was "95% sure" the strike was with an ICBM, a Ukrainian official told ABC News, but added that they were still examining the missile parts on the ground and had not yet reached a final conclusion.
"Today it was a new Russian missile. All the parameters: speed, altitude -- match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. "All expert evaluations are underway."
Moscow did not immediately confirm the launch, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declining to comment, saying questions about it should instead be directed to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced Thursday morning it had tracked the launch of the ICBM, along with six additional missiles, all of which were targeting the Dnipro region. The ICBM appeared to have been launched from the Astrahan region, in Russia's southwest, Ukrainian military officials said.
All of the missiles were launched in about two hours, beginning at about 5 a.m. local time, Ukraine said.
All were targeted at businesses and critical infrastructure, but only the missile that Ukraine identified as an ICBM struck the city, Ukraine said. The six other missiles were shot down. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, officials said.
This file photo, a screengrab taken from handout footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry on March 1, 2024, purports to show the test firing of an ICBM belonging to the country's nuclear deterrence forces.Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. officials said the assessment of the launch, the type of missile and warhead, and the damage in Dnipro was continuing. The distance from what Ukraine said was the launch point to the strike location in Dnipro is about 600 miles, a distance shorter than what an ICBM would be expected to travel.
Two experts told ABC News the projectile, seen in video circulating online, looks likely to be "a ballistic missile with MIRV-ed capabilities."
The launch of an ICBM, if confirmed as such, would arrive amid concerns that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further escalate. This week, Ukraine's military for the first time launched U.S.-made ATACMS missiles toward targets within Russia, days after U.S. President Joe Biden allowed for such use of the long-range weapons.
Kyiv on Tuesday launched six of the ATACMS at targets within Russian territory, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Zelenskyy said he would not confirm if Ukraine had used ATACMS to conduct a strike on an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, but said Ukraine has ATACMS and "will use all of these" against Russia.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with the Tax Service chief at the Kremlin in Moscow on Nov. 21, 2024.Vyacheslav Prokofyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Within hours of Russia announcing it had struck down five of the ATACMS on Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had updated the country's nuclear doctrine, a move that lowered the bar for Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. Russian ICBMs are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, although it appeared the missile fired on Thursday was not equipped with one.
Following that warning, Ukraine on Wednesday fired long-range British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia for the first time, a Ukrainian military unit involved in the operation told ABC News. At least 10 of those missiles hit an estate in the village of Marino, the unit said.
They were targeting a command post where North Korean army generals and officers were present, the unit said. More than 10,000 North Korean troops are said to be operating alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region.
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Nov. 21, 2024, shows Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an air-attack, in Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine's 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion, which helped provide fire control for the strikes, told ABC News that there was intelligence showing high-ranking North Koreans were present.
Zelenskyy cast the Russian strike on Thursday as a result of Russia and its leader being "terrified."
"Obviously, Putin is terrified when normal life simply exists next to him. When people simply have dignity. When a country simply wants to be and has the right to be independent," Zelenskyy said. "Putin is doing whatever it takes to prevent his neighbor from breaking free of his grasp."
ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Lauren Minore, Yulia Drozd and Natasha Popova contributed to this report.
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Does anyone know why Ukrainians are so overwrought by North Korean soldiers? Or is this just more Soviet style propaganda?
Here some more for ya, North Korean style! Apparently Zelensky hates Russians and fears North Koreans. Kim Jong Un has got to be loving it.
And the Doomsday clock ticks closer to midnight while Biden naps ….