Russian missiles battered Ukraine on Thursday, including on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday in an attack on Dnipro. AFP

Ukraine said Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday on Dnipro, and if confirmed would be the first known use of the rocket that is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to reports.

Ukraine's air force said the missile was fired from Russia's Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea, the Associated Press reported.

The report said the ICBM was fired along with eight other rockets, and the Ukrainian military downed six of them.

"In particular, an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation," the air force said in a statement, Reuters reported.

But U.S. and Western officials have rejected the ICBM claim, saying the missile was a Medium or Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile, OSINTdefeder reported.

The attack comes amid mounting tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, and just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin revised the country's nuclear doctrine that lowers the threshold for using nuclear arms.

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