Ukraine war briefing: Putin accused of ‘reckless nuclear brinkmanship’ in Oreshnik missile strike on Kyiv

Russia’s deadly attack condemned across Europe; Macron warns Belarusian leader Lukashenko to stay out of the war, source says. What we know on day 1,552 Russia’s latest attacks against Ukraine, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy said involved an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, showed “reckless nuclear-brinkmanship”, the EU’s foreign policy chief said. “Russia hit a dead-end on the battlefield, so it terrorizes Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centres. These are abhorrent acts of terror meant to kill as many civilians as possible,” Kaja Kallas wrote on X. “Moscow reportedly using Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles – systems designed to carry nuclear warheads – is a political scare tactic and reckless nuclear brinkmanship,” Kallas said. Russia has now used its powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile three times in strikes on Ukraine, writes Jennifer Rankin. The massive attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed at least four people and injured about 100. “They are genuinely deranged,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram, describing Moscow’s latest strikes, which he said had hit Kyiv the hardest. The head of the World Health Org