The menacing attack close to NATO and EU territory was aimed at Europe’s largest underground gas storage facility, it is believed.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement that ‍the ‍strike was a response to an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on one ⁠of the Russian dictator’s residences at the end ⁠of December.

Kyiv has called the Kremlin’s assertion that it tried to attack ‍the residence, ⁠in Russia’s Novgorod’s region, ‘a lie’.

It came on a night of death and destruction for Ukraine with massive attacks on civilians in their homes especially in Kyiv and Volodymyr Zelensky‘s birthplace Kryvyi Rih.

It was initially unclear that NATO warplanes in nearby Poland had time to scramble as they routinely do when faced with ballistic missile strikes on western Ukraine.

The Oreshnik was fired from the Astrakhan region, deep in Russia, and took less than 15 minutes to explode over Lviv in a trademark shower of bright flashes with the night sky turning pink-red.

The extraordinary speed initially fuelled speculation online that Russia used an Oreshnik-type ballistic weapon, but Ukrainian investigators say confirmation of the weapon used will only be possible after analysis of the debris.

However, the Russian defence ministry admitted to using Oreshnik – claiming it was in response to a Ukrainian bid to kill Putin with a strike on his palace in Valdai, north of Moscow.

Western intelligence and Ukraine are adamant there was no such strike.

‘In response to the Kyiv regime’s terrorist attack on the residence of the President of the Russian Federation in the Novgorod region, which took place on the night of December 29, 2025, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike using long-range, land- and sea-based precision weapons, including the Oreshnik medium-range ground-mobile missile system, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), against critical targets in Ukraine,’ said the Moscow defence ministry.

‘The strike’s objectives were achieved.

‘The [drone] production facilities used in the terrorist attack were hit, as well as energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.

‘Any terrorist actions by the criminal Ukrainian regime will not go unanswered.’

It was only the second time it has been used in anger, the first being in Dnipro in 2024 when it was deployed without a warhead in a ploy to terrorise the population.

The ‘unstoppable’ Oreshnik system is now based close to Ukraine and NATO territory in Belarus – but this strike came from the Kapustin Yar missile test range in the Astraphan region, and may have taken less than seven minutes to cover the 900 mile range to hit its target.

Russian pro-Putin propaganda channel War Gonzo boasted: ‘The power of the explosions was so great that…they were felt by residents of the entire region.’

The damage to the giant Stryi gas storage facility – vital for Ukrainian supplies, especially in midwinter – was initially unclear.

Even a reduced or inert warhead strike by Putin amounts to a high-speed show of force — used less to level targets than to terrify, signal escalation and advertise that nowhere feels out of range.

The strike on Lviv is the clearest indication yet that Putin has no intention of heeding Donald Trump’s warnings for an end to the war and a peace settlement.

Russia also repeatedly struck Kyiv in a long and hellish night of deadly attacks, killing and maiming dozens of Ukrainians in a missile and drone onslaught on residential districts.

In the Ukrainian capital, at least four people were killed and 24 wounded in strikes over six hours, including five rescuers.

Up to 35 Russian missiles and hundreds of Shahed loitering munitions were deployed in the attack which pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to power outages.

Water supplier Kyivvodokanal said infrastructure in the city was destroyed, impacting supply in the Pecherskyi district and Livoberezhnyi Masyv.

‘Twenty residential buildings alone were damaged,’ Zelensky said, referring to Kyiv and its suburbs.

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