Ukraine is asking its Western partners for updated air defense systems after Russia fired an ultra-fast ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro this week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
"Ukraine's defense minister is already holding meetings with our partners on new air defense systems, exactly the kind of systems that can protect lives from new risks," Zelensky said in an evening video address published on social media.
Zelensky also called out Moscow's key ally China for its response to Moscow's new missile, which experts say can likely be equipped with a nuclear warhead and fly several thousand kilometers.
China's foreign ministry said "all parties should remain calm and exercise restraint."
In his evening address, Zelensky said: "From Russia, this is a mockery of the position of states such as China, states of the Global South, some leaders who call for restraint every time."
"The world must sound serious in its response, so that Putin is really afraid of expanding the war and feels the real consequences of his actions," he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow would carry out more tests of the hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile in "combat conditions," a day after firing one on Ukraine.
"We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and character of the security threats posted to Russia," Putin said in a televised meeting with military chiefs.
Russia fired the new-generation missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro early Thursday in a major escalation of the weaponry being deployed in the nearly three-year conflict.
The Kremlin boss also ordered the missile, which flies at speeds of Mach 10 -- 10 times the speed of sound -- to be put into serial production. Russia is developing similar advanced systems, he added.
"We need to begin serial production. The decision... has in effect been taken," Putin said, praising the "particular strength of this weapon and its power.
"The weapon system that was tested yesterday is another faithful guarantee of Russia's territorial integrity and sovereignty," he added.
Putin claimed no other countries in the world had such missile technology. While he conceded other states would soon develop them, he said: "That will be tomorrow, after a year or two. But we have this system now. That's important."
His choreographed meeting with the defense minister and those in charge of developing the missile came at the end of a week that has seen the Ukraine conflict escalate rapidly.
Putin said the firing of the Oreshnik missile was a direct response to Kyiv's forces using US- and UK-supplied missiles on Russian territory for the first time.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Putin said Russia reserved the right to fire missiles at military facilities in countries whose weapons are being used by Ukraine -- specifically the United States and Britain.
With AFP
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