MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that the target it hit last week in a strike with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile was a Ukrainian aircraft repair plant, which was disabled.
Ukraine and its European backers condemned the Russian missile strike on Friday, which they said was intended to intimidate the West in a week when European countries offered troops for a potential post-war reassurance force in Ukraine.
It was only the second time Russia has used the intermediate-range ballistic missile during the war. A Ukrainian official told Reuters the missile, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was armed with inert dummy warheads and damaged a workshop at a state enterprise in Lviv, near the Polish border.
Russia’s defence ministry said the Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant was disabled as a result of the strike, which it said hit production workshops and warehouses.
“This enterprise carried out repairs and maintenance of Ukrainian armed forces aviation equipment, including F-16 and MiG-29 aircraft transferred by Western countries,” the ministry said.
“The company also produced long- and medium-range attack drones used to strike Russian civilian targets deep within Russian territory.”
Russia said on Friday that the missile strike was a response to a Ukrainian attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences in northern Russia at the end of December. Kyiv has denied carrying out such an attack.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Guy Faulconbridge and Peter Graff)
