ReutersRussia confirmed it used the Oreshnik ballistic missile as part of a massive overnight strike in Ukraine on Thursday night.
Four people were killed and 25 injured in Kyiv, where loud explosions could be heard for hours, lighting up the sky with explosions.
It is believed to be the second time Moscow has used the Oreshnik, which was first sent to hit the central city of Dnipro in November 2024.
Russia’s defense ministry said the strike was a response to Ukraine’s drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence in late December, which Kyiv denies doing so.
While the ministry did not specify what Oreshnik was targeting, shortly before midnight (22:00 GMT) videos began circulating on social media showing several explosions outside the western city of Lviv.
Ukrainian authorities confirmed that a ballistic missile hit infrastructure in Lviv, about 60km (40 miles) from the Polish border.
The Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile, meaning it can reach 5,500km (3,417 miles). It is believed that there was a warhead that was deliberately split during its final descent into several, independently aimed inert projectiles, which caused a different repeated explosion at moments.
“Such a strike near the borders of the EU and NATO is a serious threat to the security of the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The strike was launched “in response to (Putin’s) own hallucinations,” he added, referring to the alleged drone attack on the president’s home in December.
The EU immediately cast serious doubt on whether the strike had taken place, and last week Donald Trump said he did not think such an attack had taken place.
While Lviv and other western regions were targeted on Thursday night, more than a dozen missiles and hundreds of drones were deployed during the attack on Kyiv.
A paramedic was among the dead when he arrived at a destroyed apartment in Kyiv. The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, said it was a “double-tap” hit – where the first strike was followed by the second, killing the rescuers who arrived to help the injured.
Also targeted were two apartments along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and a high-rise building in the city’s central district.
Power supply has been disrupted in many neighborhoods of the city in the middle of a particularly harsh winter and as Kyiv braces for -15C (5F) temperatures this weekend.
Targeting of power plants has become a constant part of this war, with Ukraine increasingly responding to the kind of ongoing Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that often leave millions without access to electricity or heating.
On Thursday night, as Moscow’s attack on Ukraine continued, half a million people in the Russian region of Belgorod were without power after an attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, the local governor said.
Authorities also said a Ukrainian strike at a Russian power plant in the city of Oryol, further north, affected water and heating systems.