Putin's new missile was flying faster than Mach 11 when it struck a Ukrainian city, intelligence officials said.

The Russian missile that hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday flew for 15 minutes and reached a speed of more than Mach 11, the top intelligence agency in Kyiv said.

Vladimir Putin said Moscow had hit a Ukrainian military base with a new intermediate-range missile, known as the “Oreshnik”.

“The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment it was launched in the Astrakhan region until its impact on the city of Dnipro was 15 minutes,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) said in a statement.

“This missile was armed with six weapons: each one was equipped with six weapons. The speed in the last part of the trajectory was more than Mach 11.”

Mach 11 is eleven times the speed of sound.

HUR added that the weapon “may be from the 'Kedr' missile site”.

Kyiv initially suggested Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, but US and NATO officials echoed Putin's description of the weapon as an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Meanwhile, Yvette Cooper dismissed Putin's missile threat against Britain as 'bluster' and insisted it would not undermine support for Ukraine.

The Home Secretary made the strong statement after Putin confirmed that Russia had tested a new medium-range missile in Ukraine in response to the Kyiv missile launched by the UK and US into Russia.

Kyiv's air force initially said the Russian missile that hit the city of Dnipro on Thursday was an intercontinental ballistic missile, although the Kremlin says it was a new intermediate-range weapon.

In a televised speech, Putin said: “In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on November 21 of this year, the Russian military launched a joint strike on one of the centers of the Ukrainian defense industry.”

“One of Russia's medium-range ballistic missile systems has been tested under combat conditions, this time with a hypersonic non-nuclear warhead.”

Threatening the UK and the US, he added: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.”

But Ms Cooper told LBC Radio: “We've seen the sarcasm and the aggressive rhetoric and threats from Putin right from the start.

“There is nothing new in this and we have once again made it clear that we stand with Ukraine in their response to Russian aggression and the invasion of their country.

“That's why we gave Ukraine weapons and equipment to help them defend their country and they will continue to represent Ukraine.”

He added: “Putin may think that aggressive rhetoric will stop people from supporting Ukraine, of course it won't, and it hasn't and it hasn't from the beginning.”

On the battlefield, Putin's forces are accelerating their advance in eastern Ukraine, Russia's defense minister said.

Andrei Belousov made the claim in a video where he was shown on Defense Ministry footage visiting a Russian official in Ukraine and handing out medals of valor.

Russian troops have recently advanced near Kupyansk, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Kurakhove and Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine and the Kursk regions of their country, while Ukrainian forces have recently recovered lost positions near Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for The Study of War.

Putin's military has stepped up drone and missile attacks, killing and injuring civilians, including children, as well as Ukrainian soldiers.

* A Russian airstrike in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and wounded 12 on Friday morning, regional authorities said in a statement.