The Ukrainian government is warning that Ukraine has been struck by a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile, but observers in the United States are not convinced.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Thursday video address that “a new Russian missile” with properties similar to an ICBM was fired into the country. The Ukrainian Air Force released a similar message also asserting the unprecedented use of an ICBM.
“Its speed and altitude suggest intercontinental ballistic capabilities. Investigations are ongoing. It’s clear that Putin is using Ukraine as a testing ground,” Zelensky said in his address.
If true, it would mark the first use of an intercontinental ballistic missile against an enemy in war. But there are some doubts about the accuracy of Ukraine’s reports.
Neither the president nor the air force offered evidence or details on the model, target, or impact of the alleged ICBM, though outlets reported a damaging strike in the city of Dnipro that killed multiple people on the same day.
Several U.S. officials have told outlets they do not believe the projectile was an ICBM.
An unidentified official told ABC News that it was a ballistic missile that struck Dnipro. Three separate U.S. officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile, not an ICBM.
The Russian government seems to be playing into the confusion.
Maria Zakharova, director at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s Department of Information and Press, took a phone call in front of the reporters in which she appeared to be told by an unknown superior not to comment on the ICBM reports.
“About the ballistic missile strike on Yuzhmash that the Western media are talking about, we are not commenting at all,” the caller is allegedly heard telling Zakharova on a hot mic. “Yuzhmash” refers to a Ukrainian defense contractor known as Pivdenmash.
Many observers questioned the strange circumstances of the phone call — an ostensibly secret conversation perfectly placed on a hot mic in front of dozens of journalists and widely shared by Russian sources after the fact.
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Zakharova called allegations that the call was staged “false” via her Telegram channel, pointing out her regular use of smartphones during press conferences to communicate with other government offices.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the reports, referring journalists to the Russian Ministry of Defense.