Ukraine says Russia has launched an ICBM attack for the first time in the war

In a statement posted Thursday on the Telegram messaging app, 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.

An intercontinental ballistic missile was said to have been fired at the city of Dnipro along with eight other missiles, and the Ukrainian military shot down six of them.

Two people were wounded in the attack, and an industrial plant and a center for the rehabilitation of disabled people were damaged, local officials said.

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 strong message of potential escalation.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that its air defense systems had shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles, six HIMARS missiles and 67 drones. The announcement was made in the daily review of the ministry regarding the military actions in Ukraine.

The press release does not specify when and where exactly it happened or what the missiles were aimed at. This is not Moscow’s first public announcement of the downing of Storm Shadow missiles, as Russia previously reported that it had shot down some over the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The development comes as the war has taken on an increasingly international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to aid Russia on the battlefield — a development that US officials said prompted US President Joe Biden’s policy shift to allow Ukraine to fire longer-range US missiles to Russia. The Kremlin responded with threats of further escalation.

Putin has previously warned the US and other NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to use longer-range Western-supplied weapons to target Russian territory would mean Russia and NATO are at war.

And the new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nuclear-backed nation.

While the doctrine foresees Russia’s possible nuclear response to a conventional attack, it is worded broadly to avoid a firm commitment to use nuclear weapons and keep Putin’s options open.