NATO scrambles fighter jets as Putin unleashes 'nuclear missile without warhead'

 Russia launched fresh attacks on Kyiv overnight following a period which has seen some of the most savage bombardments of the war.

The Kremlin also unleashed the medium-range hypersonic Oreshnik missile on Bila Tserkva, 56 miles south of the Ukrainian capital.

“They launched a nuclear missile without a nuclear warhead to scare us and the world. Idiots,” said Serhiy Sternenko, adviser to the Kyiv Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, referring to the Oreshnik strike. “This war must be ended — peace is needed, not missiles to satisfy the sick ambitions of one person.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed the Oreshnik was deployed. He said there were at least 83 people injured by the attack. At least four people were killed in total during the missile onslaught.

NATO fighters were scrambled in Poland due to the punishing Russian strikes which also involved Tu-95MS nuclear-capable bombers, more than 90 missiles and 600 drones.

The onslaught, which left dead and wounded Ukrainians in its wake, was seen as a revenge strike which Putin had threatened for the deaths of at least 12 students, mainly female, in a Luhansk college dormitory, according to Russian sources.

Ukraine said it had hit a military facility “whose personnel regularly carry out strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Western intelligence had issued warnings, echoed by Zelensky, that an Oreshnik strike was being prepared by Putin’s military. More than 40 locations were struck in the Russian onslaught overnight, which also involved Dagger, Iskander and Kh-101 missiles.

At least 10 apartment buildings were hit as well as a market at Kyiv's Kvadrat shopping centre. Russian sources said the Oreshnik system was deployed, making use of its fearsome separating warheads, although there was no initial independent confirmation.

Poland announced the scrambling of French air force planes in response to the onslaught.

“Due to the activity of long-range Russian aircraft carrying out air strikes on Ukrainian territory, military aircraft are operating in our airspace,” said a statement from Warsaw.

“The Command of the Operational Forces of the Armed Forces has activated the necessary forces and assets at its disposal. Ground-based air defence and radar detection systems have been placed on alert.”

Zelensky was warned in advance of the threat of an Oreshnik strike, and the US embassy in Kyiv alerted to a coming major Russian airstrike.

“There was a report from our intelligence,” he said. “We received information, including from American and European partners, about the Russians preparing a strike using the Oreshnik.”

For the third time, it was deployed without warheads in an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians. One enraged Russian military channel - Thirteenth - lambasted Putin, asking: “What’s the point of firing a blank slug without a warhead and calling it Oreshnik? Did they kill anyone there? Zelensky, for example? No?

“It won't bring back the lives of the dead children, it won't end the war.”