Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Monday, Jan. 12, that its Oreshnik missile strike last week disabled the Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant, which services Ukrainian Air Force jets, including Western-supplied F-16s and MiG-29s.
According to the Russian statement, the strike also damaged workshops, drone storage facilities, and the plant’s airfield. The ministry said the operation was part of a broader attack using Iskander and Kalibr missiles, targeting production facilities in Kyiv and Ukrainian energy infrastructure supporting the defense industry.
The nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missile targeted the Lviv region overnight on Friday, Jan.9, hitting what local officials described as “critical infrastructure facilities.” Russian military bloggers claimed a gas storage site was hit.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) recovered fragments of the missile and confirmed that they belonged to the Russian Oreshnik system.
This marks the second reported use of the Oreshnik missile by Russia against Ukraine. The first occurred in November 2024, when the city of Dnipro was struck.
The Kremlin has argued that the missile was fired in response to Ukraine’s attempt to strike one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences – a claim that Kyiv has demonstrated to be false, as has the United States.
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of fabricating the incident to justify abandoning ongoing peace talks.
A Kyiv Post fact check published on Dec. 30 found little evidence to support Russian claims that Ukraine attempted to assassinate Putin by launching drone swarms at his personal residence near Valdai in Novgorod Oblast.
When asked for evidence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said none was needed, calling skepticism “insane,” while refusing to say whether Putin was at the residence. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova insisted the attack occurred and threatened retaliation.
The Kremlin has promoted the Oreshnik as a nuclear-capable missile impossible to intercept, capable of reaching speeds of Mach 10, according to Putin. In 2024, he described it not as a “modernization of an old Soviet system” but as a “state-of-the-art” weapon.
Experts say the missile can travel at hypersonic speeds, but unlike typical hypersonic weapons, it cannot maneuver in flight.
“As with other intermediate- and intercontinental ballistic missiles, its warheads enter the atmosphere and reach their targets at hypersonic speeds,” said Marcin Andrzej Piotrowski, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), in 2024.
Putin also sought to send a signal to the West by showcasing the missile in Belarus just before New Year’s Eve.