MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - Russia has launched a nuclear-capable ballistic missile targeting the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, evoking international concern.
The missile hit a military facility in Dnipro.
The U.S. Defense Department said it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
'I can confirm that Russia did launch an experimental intermediate range ballistic missile,' deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said during a briefing at the Pentagon. 'This IRBM was based on Russia's RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile model. In terms of notifications to the United States, the United States was prenotified, briefly, before the launch, through nuclear risk reduction channels.'
Singh said the missile carried a conventional warhead, and it could be fitted with other warheads as well.
'It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of ... conventional or nuclear warheads'.
The Defense Department has characterized the IRBM as 'experimental' in that it's the first time a weapon of its kind has been used on the battlefield in Ukraine, Singh said.
'This was a new type of lethal capability that was deployed on the battlefield. That's certainly [of] concern to us ... I don't have an assessment of its impacts right now, but it's something that, of course, we're concerned by,' she old reporters.
Singh also said an IRBM and an intercontinental ballistic missile have similar flight paths, high trajectories and can carry large payloads.
'But the main difference lies in the range and the strategic purpose,' she said.
The UN and the European Union criticized the attack, and called for deescalation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attack on Dnipro was in response to Ukraine launching American and British long-range missiles against targets in Russia.
He warned that Russia could attack military facilities of Ukraine's allies that supplied these weapons.
Ukraine's President Zelensky says the attack is 'a clear and severe escalation' and called on the world to respond to it.
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