President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to hit Russia with their weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could strike back.

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.

Ukraine did not provide any evidence that an ICBM was used in the attack on the central city of Dnipro, apparently armed with conventional warheads.