Putin threatens Kyiv decision-makers after striking energy grid

BBC:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to attack decision-making centres in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with the country’s new ballistic missile, Oreshnik.

Putin was speaking hours after Russia launched a “comprehensive” strike on Ukraine’s energy grid overnight, in what he called a response to “continued attacks” using US-supplied Atacms missiles on Russian soil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that any “Russian blackmail” would be met with a “tough response”.

Ukraine used Atacms and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russian territory last week for the first time since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, following approval by the Western suppliers, the US, the UK and France.

The overnight Russian strike unfolded over several hours with waves of drones and missiles flying across the length and breadth of Ukraine – the second attack of its kind this month.

There were no fatalities, but it left more than one million people in Ukraine without power.

Zelensky said cluster munitions had been used against civilian and energy infrastructure.

“Cluster warheads [are] a particularly dangerous type of Russian weaponry used against civilians,” he said, adding that they “significantly complicated” the work of rescuers and repair crews.

Putin said the Russia attack involving 90 missiles and 100 drones also included the “Oreshnik” – a new ballistic missile which, according to Putin, cannot be intercepted.

US officials believe Russia is likely only to have a small number of the experimental Oreshnik missiles and would need time to produce more of them.

Responding in his nightly address, Zelensky said Putin “has no interest in ending this war” and sought to “prevent others from ending this war”.

“[His] escalation now is a form of pressure aimed at eventually forcing the president of the United States to accept Russia’s terms.”

The Russian leader also said Moscow would not allow Ukraine to get nuclear weapons, and if it ever did, would use “all means of destruction at Russia’s disposal”, according to Russia’s state-run news agency RIA.

This is thought to be a reference to reports in the New York Times newspaper last week that unnamed Western officials had suggested giving Ukraine nuclear weapons before US President Joe Biden leaves office in January.

Zelensky has also repeatedly complained that the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, by which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons inherited from the USSR, had left the country without the necessary security.