Russia has launched a series of recent attacks against Ukraine, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated involved an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. This has been widely condemned as “reckless nuclear-brinkmanship” by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. Kallas described Russia's actions as terrorizing Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centers, labeling them as “abhorrent acts of terror meant to kill as many civilians as possible.” She further emphasized that Moscow's reported use of Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which are systems designed to carry nuclear warheads, constitutes a “political scare tactic and reckless nuclear brinkmanship.”

Jennifer Rankin reported that Russia has now deployed its powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile three times in strikes on Ukraine. These attacks have had devastating consequences, particularly a massive assault on Kyiv and its surrounding region, which resulted in at least four fatalities and approximately 100 injuries. President Zelenskyy described Moscow’s latest strikes, which heavily impacted Kyiv, as acts of a “genuinely deranged” adversary. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that WHO offices in Kyiv sustained damage from debris, with windows on the third floor being affected, though no one was injured in the building, which also houses other UN agencies.

International condemnation poured in following the attacks. German foreign minister Johann Wadephul, alongside French president Emmanuel Macron, decried Russia’s actions, with Wadephul specifically calling the use of an Oreshnik ballistic missile “another escalation.” UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper characterized Moscow’s escalating assault on Ukrainian civilians as a sign of its weakness, describing the scenes from Kyiv as “awful.”

In a related development, French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning to Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a key Russian ally, against any further involvement in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. This warning, made during the first reported phone call between the two leaders since early 2022, underscored the risks for Belarus of being drawn into Russia’s war of aggression, which was partly launched from Belarusian territory. Macron also urged Lukashenko to take steps to improve relations between Belarus and Europe. This diplomatic intervention comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions, including joint nuclear drills held by Russia and Belarus on May 18, coinciding with an escalation of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory. Belarus, bordering NATO’s eastern flank, is known to host Russia’s latest nuclear-capable missile, the Oreshnik.

Concurrently, Ukraine has intensified its counter-actions. The SBU security service claimed its drones attacked an oil pumping dispatch station in Russia’s Vladimir region, describing the facility as a crucial hub for pumping oil products southwest towards Moscow and its surrounding areas, including major oil depots and Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo airports. The SBU reported a fire spanning 800 square meters after the strike, which the governor of Vladimir Region, Alexander Avdeyev, later confirmed had been extinguished near the town of Kameshkovo.