Russian President Vladimir Putin says the weapon was developed very rapidly, hyping it up as an unstoppable hypersonic precision-strike weapon.

In a stark warning to the West, President Putin said the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles.

Two days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in the country's policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. Then, on Thursday, Russia attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new type of ballistic missile capable of one day delivering multiple nuclear warheads to distant targets with little warning.