UN Secretary General António Guterres issued a statement Jan. 9 strongly condemning Russian missile and drone attacks in Ukraine following Moscow’s firing of its medium-range nuclear-capable "Oreshnik" ballistic missile.

The Secretary-General’s office stated: "These attacks have resulted in significant civilian casualties and deprived millions of Ukrainians of essential services, including electricity, heating and water at a time of acute humanitarian need… Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law. No matter where they occur, they are unacceptable, unjustifiable and must stop immediately."

The Oreshnik strike near the western city of Lviv was part of a wave of overnight Russian missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian targets on Jan. 9. Ukrainian sources say that at least four were killed in the attacks and at least 25 injured. The attack knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands and disrupted heating in the middle of winter.

This was the second time Russia used the experimental hypersonic Oreshnik missile over the course of the Ukraine war, following a strike on Dnipro in November 2024. Putin boasted after that strike that the missile travels at speeds of Mach 10 (2.5 to 3 kilometers per second), which cannot be intercepted by air defense systems. He further stated that "when used in a concentrated, massive strike—using several Oreshnik missiles simultaneously—the resulting impact is comparable in power to that of a nuclear weapon [without] nuclear contamination."

The Russian strikes were in response to what Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed was a terrorist attack targeting President Vladimir Putin's residence in Novgorod on the night of Dec. 28. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that any attack occurred at the residence.

From JURIST, Jan. 12. Used with permission.

See our last reports on Russian war crimes and nuclear threats in Ukraine.