Ukraine’s parliament has cancelled a session after Russia deployed a new ballistic missile that threatens to escalate the nearly three-year war.
Three Ukrainian legislators confirmed that the parliamentary session previously scheduled was cancelled on Friday due to the ongoing threat of Russian missile attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.
On Thursday, Russia fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile in response to Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
The missile struck a missile factory in Dnipro in central Ukraine.
Mr Putin warned that US air defence systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said flies at 10 times the speed of sound and which he called Oreshnik – Russian for hazelnut tree.
The Pentagon confirmed that Russia’s missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.