Russia fired hypersonic missile at Ukraine: Putin

Russia has fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro in response to the United States and United Kingdom allowing Ukraine to strike Russian territory with advanced weapons.

President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address, said Russia struck a Ukrainian military facility with a new ballistic missile known as "Oreshnik" (the hazel) and warned that more could follow.

"A regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character," Putin said in an address carried by state television after 8pm Moscow time.

The United States, Putin said, was pushing the world towards a global conflict.

"And in case of escalation of aggressive actions, we will also respond decisively and in a mirror manner," he said.

Putin said a Ukrainian missile attack with ATACMS had failed to inflict any serious damage.

But the UK Storm Shadow attack on the Kursk region on November 21 had been directed at a command point and led to deaths and injuries, Putin said.

"The use by the enemy of such weapons is not able to change the course of the military actions in the zone of the special military operation," Putin said.

"We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities," Putin said.

"If anyone else doubts this, then they are wrong - there will always be a response."

The United States was pre-notified by Russia shortly before its strike, a US official said while another said they had briefed Ukraine and other close allies in recent days to prepare for the possible use of such a weapon.

Earlier, Ukraine claimed that Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a weapon designed for long-distance nuclear strikes and never before used in war, although US officials said it was an intermediate range ballistic missile that has a smaller range.

Regardless of its classification, the latest strike highlighted rapidly rising tensions in recent days amid the 33-month-old war.

Ukraine fired US and UK missiles at targets inside Russia this week despite warnings by the Kremlin that it would view such action as a major escalation.

"Today there was a new Russian missile. All the characteristics - speed, altitude - are (of an) intercontinental ballistic (missile). An expert (investigation) is currently underway," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video statement.

Ukraine's foreign ministry urged the international community to react swiftly to the use of what it said was "the use by Russia of a new type of weaponry".

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia likely possesses a handful of the "experimental" intermediate-range ballistic missiles used in Thursday's strike.

Ukraine's air force said the missile targeted Dnipro in central-eastern Ukraine and was fired from the Russian region of Astrakhan, more than 700km away.

Russia also fired a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles, six of which were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said.

The attack targeted enterprises and critical infrastructure in Dnipro, the Ukrainian air force said.

Dnipro was a missile-making centre in the Soviet era.

Ukraine has expanded its military industry during the war but keeps its whereabouts secret.

The air force did not say what the missile targeted or whether it had caused any damage but regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the missile attack damaged an industrial enterprise and set off fires in Dnipro.

Two people were hurt.

A group of glowing projectiles could be seen plummeting to the ground from the night sky in a video published by Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian military charity.

It said the video was of Dnipro overnight.

Russia's defence ministry, in its daily report of events over the previous 24 hours on Thursday, said air defences had shot down two Storm Shadow cruise missiles but did not say where.

The UK had previously let Ukraine use Storm Shadows only within Ukrainian territory.

Russia has said the use of foreign weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict.

Ukraine says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support the February 2022 invasion.