Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Putin says the Oreshnik, which Russia fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted - a claim greeted with scepticism by Western experts.

Launching multiple Oreshnik missiles in a single attack would have destructive power similar to that of a nuclear weapon, the Russian president claimed.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said that he might use the new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile against "decision-making centres in Kyiv". Source: Putin quoted by Russian media Quote: "The Ministry of Defence and the General Staff are choosing targets for [Oreshnik] strikes against Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened to strike "decision-making centres" in Kyiv with Russia's new hypersonic missile, hours after Moscow pummelled Ukraine's energy grid in an attack that left a million people without power.

Last week, Russia fired its new intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Ukraine and hit a factory in the central city of Dnipro, as the country puts the weapon into mass production

The dust has settled in Dnipro, Ukraine, where investigators are analyzing the wreckage at a weapons factory struck by a new Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile last week. But the debate continues over the strategic impact of the missile,

Russia's new Oreshnik missile is capable of carrying nuclear weapons. However, it is not yet known what kind of explosives, if any, the missile used to hit the Dnipro, The New York Times reports. According to the agency,