Ukraine called Russia’s strike a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war by a “crazy neighbour”, while Kyiv’s main backer, the US, said that Moscow was to blame for escalating the conflict “at every turn”.

Nato and Kyiv will hold emergency talks on Tuesday over Russia’s use of an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile. The Kremlin fired the new intermediate-range ballistic missile at a central Ukrainian city on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.