Ukraine has been hit by a surge in Russian ballistic missile attacks, about a third of which used North Korean weapons that can only fly because they run on Western circuitry, obtained despite sanctions,

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States and Ukraine’s other partners that the weapon could be deployed against their interests as well.

At the center of an escalating arms race, Ukraine wants to join the ranks of a select group of countries that can produce ballistic missiles. This week, Kyiv struck Russia for the first time with long-range missiles supplied by the West,

The United States believes that Russia fired a never-before-fielded intermediate-range ballistic missile on Thursday in its attack on Ukraine, an escalation that analysts say could have implications for European missile defense.

The Ukrainian Air Force claims that Russia launched a conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) today at the city of Dnipro, in the center of the country. In either case, the act is unprecedented for the war in Ukraine and it would mark the first use of either one of these types of weapons in combat anywhere.