Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Putin says the Oreshnik, which Russia fired for the first time last week, is incapable of being intercepted.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned that Russia would use all available weapons against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear capabilities.
Putin warned that Russia might deploy its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile to target "decision-making centers" in Kyiv in response to Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian territory. So far, Russia has refrained from attacking Ukrainian government institutions such as ministries, parliament, or the president's office during the 33-month war.
The intermediate-range ballistic missile can travel at a speed of Mach 10, or up to three kilometres (1.8 miles) per second, according to Moscow.
Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Putin says the Oreshnik, which Russia fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted - a claim greeted with scepticism by Western experts. "Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on November 21," Putin told leaders of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries at a summit in Kazakhstan.
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