UPDATE 1-Russia preparing strike on Ukraine using hypersonic 'Oreshnik' missile, Zelenskiy says

Russia is preparing a strike against ​Ukraine using a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic ​missile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on ‌Saturday, ​citing intelligence from Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe. The warning came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options ‌for retaliation against Ukraine for a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russia is preparing a strike against ​Ukraine using a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic ​missile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on ‌Saturday, ​citing intelligence from Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe.

The warning came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options ‌for retaliation against Ukraine for a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's military denied responsibility for that attack.

"We are seeing signs of preparation for a combined ‌strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry. The specified intermediate-range weapons could ‌be used in such a strike," Zelenskiy said in an X post that did not mention the drone attack. Russia has already attacked Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile which President Vladimir Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of ⁠its ​reported velocity of more than ⁠10 times the speed of sound.

Moscow first fired an Oreshnik against what it said was a military factory in ⁠Ukraine in November 2024. On that occasion Ukrainian sources said the missile was carrying dummy warheads, not explosives, and ​caused limited damage. The second attack was in January 2026, and the missile struck Lviv region ⁠in the west of the country.

"We are drawing the attention of our partners in the United States and in Europe ⁠to ​the fact that the use of such weapons and the prolongation of this war also sets a global precedent for other potential aggressors," Zelenskiy said. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany ⁠in January described Russia's use of an Oreshnik ballistic missile in western Ukraine as "escalatory and unacceptable".

Zelenskiy said ⁠that Kyiv counts on ⁠a response from the world and on a "response that is not post factum, but preventive." Pressure must be put on Moscow so that it does ‌not expand the ‌war, he added.