NATO and Ukraine hold talks over new Russian missile

Ambassadors from Ukraine and NATO’s 32 members meet Tuesday in Brussels over Russia’s firing last week of an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile.

Russia on Thursday carried out a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro which President Vladimir Putin said was a test of its new Oreshnik missile.

Putin said the missile attack was in response to Ukraine firing weapons supplied by the United States and Britain into Russia.

The Kremlin leader warned that Moscow felt “entitled” to hit military facilities in countries that allow Ukraine to use their weapons against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike “the latest bout of Russian madness” and appealed for updated air-defence systems to meet the new threat.

Kyiv says it hopes to get “concrete and meaningful outcomes” after calling the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

But diplomats and officials at NATO have played down expectations for any major results from the consultations on Tuesday afternoon at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters.

The most that is expected is a reiteration of NATO’s earlier insistence that Moscow’s deployment of the new weaponry will not “deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine”.

The meeting “provides an opportunity to discuss the current security situation in Ukraine and will include briefings from Ukrainian officials via video link,” a NATO official said.

The escalating tensions over Ukraine come as questions hang over the future of Western support following the re-election of Donald Trump in main NATO power the United States.

Trump has cast doubt on maintaining Washington’s vast military aid for Kyiv and pledged a quick deal to end the war.

“I cannot imagine that it is in the interest of the United States to allow Putin to come out of those possible negotiations as a winner,” senior NATO commander Rob Bauer said Monday.

On the battlefield, Ukraine’s fatigued troops are struggling to halt advances by Russian forces in the east of the country.

NATO and Ukraine established the joint council in 2023 that allows Kyiv to call meetings with the alliance when it sees fit.