NATO, Ukraine to meet Tuesday over Russian missile strike

Ambassadors from countries in the NATO-Ukraine Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss the strike on the city of Dnipro, officials told AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Moscow had hit Ukraine using a new-generation intermediate-range missile -- which he hinted was capable of unleashing a nuclear payload.

A spokeswoman for NATO said: "Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine."

Putin said in an address to the nation the missile strike was in response to Ukraine firing long-range weapons supplied by the United States and Britain into Russia.

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

Ukraine recently fired US- and UK-supplied longer-range missiles at Russian territory for the first time, ramping up already sky-high tensions over the conflict, which is nearly in its third year.

Leading NATO power the United States accused Russia of "escalating at every turn" in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow informed Washington, via an automatic nuclear de-escalation hotline, that it was launching the hypersonic missile half an hour before it was fired.