Latvia calls emergency UN Security Council meeting over Oreshnik strike on Ukraine
Illustrative photo: Oreshnik missile (Russian media)
Latvia will initiate an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over what it called Russia’s "barbaric attack" on Ukraine and the use of a medium-range ballistic missile near the borders of the European Union and NATO, according to Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braže on X.
"Latvia will request an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council in response to Russia’s barbaric attack against Ukraine, including using an intermediate range ballistic missile close to the EU and NATO border," Braže wrote.
Oreshnik missile strike
On the night of January 9, Russian forces attacked the Lviv region with a medium-range ballistic missile. It was initially assumed the missile was an Oreshnik.
Russia later confirmed the ballistic missile launch toward Lviv and repeated a false claim about an alleged "attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence," using it to justify the attack on Ukraine.
Subsequently, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the strike was carried out with a Russian Oreshnik missile.
Later that day, the Security Service of Ukraine displayed fragments of the Russian ballistic missile used in the attack on the Lviv region. The strike has already been classified as a war crime.
According to Reuters, the missile hit a facility in the Lviv region located near the Polish border. Damage was described as limited: several submunitions caused minor penetrations of concrete structures at a workshop and created craters in a nearby forest.
Reuters suggested the strike may have been intended as an act of intimidation against European countries.
