Putin says Russia could fire Oreshnik hypersonic missile at Kyiv

Russia could fire its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in response to Ukraine's strikes on its territory, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

The Russian leader made the threat a week after using the experimental weapon for the first time against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in a major escalation of the almost three-year war.

"We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial facilities or decision-making centers, including in Kyiv," Putin said at a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana.

"Authorities in Kyiv today continue their attempts to strike at our vital facilities, including in Saint Petersburg and Moscow," Putin added.

The intermediate-range ballistic missile can travel at a speed of Mach 10, or up to three kilometers (1.8 miles) per second, according to Moscow.

In the press conference on Thursday, Putin said the weapon had the destructive power of a meteorite.

"The kinetic impact is powerful, like a meteorite falling. We know in history what meteorites have fallen where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough for whole lakes to form," Putin said.

The weapon is "comparable in strength to a nuclear strike" when used several times at once, the Kremlin chief added, though he said it was not currently equipped with a nuclear device.