Russia’s cutting-edge Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system was used in the latest strike targeting drone production facilities, energy infrastructure and other military-related facilities inside Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
The overnight bombardment was carried out in response to an attempted “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” on the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Novgorod Region, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
On December 28-29, Ukraine launched 91 long-range UAVs at the presidential compound. All of the drones were shot down by air defenses, with Moscow promising retaliation.
According to the ministry, Russia deployed other types of long-range land- and sea-based high-precision weapons, as well as drones, during the attack.
Its targets included drone production facilities and energy infrastructure that powers the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, the statement read. “The objectives of the strike have been achieved,” it added.
“None of the terrorist actions by the criminal Ukrainian regime will go unanswered,” the ministry warned.
Late Thursday evening, an unverified video of a suspected Russian Oreshnik hypersonic missile strike in western Ukraine was published on social media. CCTV footage from Lviv Region, which borders Poland, captured numerous projectiles coming down from the skies in rapid succession, which is characteristic of the system.
Lviv Mayor Andrey Sadovoy said “a piece of critical infrastructure” had been hit in the region. Russian Telegram channels suggested that the Oreshnik struck an underground gas facility in the city of Striy, about 60km south of Lviv.
It is the second time that Moscow has used its state-of-the-art nuclear-capable ballistic missile. In November 2024, it fired the Oreshnik at a weapons plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr in what it described as a successful “combat test.” Since then, mass production of the system has begun, with Russia also deploying it on the territory of its close ally, Belarus, in late 2025.
Putin has said previously that the Oreshnik has no equals anywhere in the world, comparing its power to a “falling meteor.” According to the Russian president, the system carries dozens of homing warheads capable of hitting multiple targets, while traveling ten times faster than the speed of sound. “Anything located in the strike center is obliterated into elemental particles, reduced to dust,” he stressed.