Photo: MFA

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has already taken and is taking a number of diplomatic steps in connection with Russia's launch of a new type of missile, which had all the flight characteristics of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Foreign Ministry Spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said.

"I can inform you that in connection with the use of this new type of weapons by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry has already taken and is taking a number of diplomatic steps. In particular, we have already contacted our partners with information about what happened, what we know. We are also already using UN mechanisms, NATO mechanisms," Tykhyi said at a briefing in Kyiv.

He pointed out that the Foreign Ministry also plans to involve OSCE mechanisms to respond to this event.

"There will be formal appeals, notes, and convocations of separate formats to ‘wake up the world’ and attract attention," the spokesperson stressed.

Tykhyi recalled that Ukraine is now awaiting expert conclusions to determine the specific type of the new missile used by the Russian Federation, which fell near Dnipro in the morning.

"So far it is known that in terms of flight characteristics it is an ICBM, but we are still waiting for the conclusions of experts to confirm with concrete facts what type of missile it is," he said, adding that it has been precisely confirmed that this is a new type of missile.

According to the spokesperson, if the use of ICBMs is confirmed, Ukraine believes that "it will be possible to state that Putin's Russia has degraded to the state of the DPRK, which, as you know, periodically launches such missiles, scaring its neighbors."

"We call on the world community, every country, every leader who respects the UN Charter, to immediately respond to Russia's use of a new type of weapons, to increase the overall level of weapons, and not to wait for the conclusions of experts," the spokesperson urged.

Answering the question whether Ukraine is expected to request such ICBM downing systems as the American THAAD, the spokesperson said he would not disclose details.

"It's too early to disclose details, and I won't, so as not to worsen our position. I'll just say that there are several such systems in the world. Not just the one you named. And we believe that any system capable of countering such threats should be in Ukraine today," Tykhyi stressed.

He added that therefore Ukraine would work with partners and convince them to transfer missile defense systems.