Russia has threatened to hit US air bases in Poland with “advanced weapons” after Ukraine said Putin's army had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile targeting Dnipro.
If confirmed that the missile sent into the central-eastern part of Ukraine was an ICBM, it would be the first time such a weapon has been used in the war. Now Moscow said that the opening of a US ballistic missile base in Redzikowo in Poland would “increase the overall level of nuclear danger” with the location now on a list of Russian targets.
US and Polish officials inaugurated a NATO missile defence base in northern Poland last week, with Polish officials welcoming it as a significant step in securing the country and the NATO alliance.
The Kremlin protested the plan from the start, and denounced the base as a challenge to its own military potential that would require measures “to ensure parity.” And now Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said: “This is another frankly provocative step in a series of deeply destabilising actions by the Americans and their allies.”
While a Polish foreign ministry spokesman hit back by saying there were no nuclear missiles at the facility and was intended to be defensive. “Such threats will certainly serve as an argument to strengthen Poland's and NATO's air defences, and should also be considered by the United States,” added the spokesman, Pawel Wronski.
Meanwhile, in a statement today, Ukraine’s air force did not specify the exact type of missile but said it was launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region, which borders the Caspian Sea. It said an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired at Dnipro city along with eight other missiles, and that the Ukrainian military shot down six of them.
Two people were wounded as a result of the attack, and an industrial facility and a rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities were damaged, according to local officials. While the range of an ICBM would seem excessive for use against Ukraine, such missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads, and the use of one would serve as a chilling reminder of Russia’s nuclear capability and a powerful message of potential escalation.
The attack comes two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine that formally lowers the threshold for the country’s use of nuclear weapons. Ukraine on Tuesday fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles and reportedly fired U.K.-made Storm Shadows on Wednesday into Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday that its air defence systems shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles, six HIMARS rockets, and 67 drones. The announcement came in the ministry’s daily roundup regarding the military actions in Ukraine.
The statement didn’t say when or where exactly it happened or what the missiles were targeting. This is not Moscow’s first public announcement of the shooting down of Storm Shadow missiles, as Russia earlier reported downing some over the annexed Crimean Peninsula.