A briefing by high-profile Kremlin spokesman Maria Zakharova was interrupted by her taking a phone call on Thursday morning, which an unmuted microphone recorded her being told not to discuss the alleged Russian ICBM strike on Ukraine.
Ukraine claims it was struck with a Russian ICBM in the early hours of Thursday morning. This assertion has been challenged through the usual Western unofficial intelligence-briefing process, but if true by a narrow definition is the first use of such a nuclear-capable weapon against a live target in the history of warfare and amounts to a major warning by Russia to the West.
Exactly how to respond to the strike appears to caught many on the back foot, both in the West where government officials refusing to comment officially on the claims, and in Moscow where there seemed to be confusion how to handle their own alleged attack. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova was delivering a press briefing Thursday morning as news of the claimed ICBM strike broke in Western newspapers and in an extraordinary moment was interrupted mid-talk by her mobile phone ringing.
Who was on the other end of the line has not been disclosed, but the male speaker addressed Zakharova by the diminutive pet-name “Masha”, implying the caller was at least someone on comfortable first-name terms with the senior, high-profile Kremlin official. Grimacing in an awkward smile, having been accusing the West of trying to distabilise the Caucasus region just moments before, Zakharova told the caller “Yes? Hello? I’m in the middle of a press conference”.
The live microphone caught the speaker telling her “we have no comment” on the “ballistic missile strike the Westerners have started talking about”.
That telling the Foreign Ministry spokesman not to discuss the “ballistic missile strike” was urgent enough to interrupt a live-broadcast press conference instantly set tongues wagging in Europe, with commentators claiming to have interpreted various meanings from the brusque call. This prompted further comments from the Kremlin downplaying the incident, with state media later citing Zakharova as having said the call was merely with a subject-matter expert clarifying strikes were purely a matter for the Ministry of Defence, so there was nothing for the Foreign Ministry to say.
Zakharova blamed “contradictory materials on the Internet” and said the hot-mic moment was not proof of any Kremlin “intrigue”.
She also dismissed what she called fake information in response to claims the clearly audible call had been staged for the purpose of listeners in the West. Zakharova called these assertions “incompetent and false”, saying she frequently reached out to subject experts by phone mid-briefing if confronted with a challenging question.
Exactly what transpired on Thursday morning remains unclear. The Ukrainian air force has claimed an ICBM strike, but even President Zelensky himself cast some doubt on the strike against the central-Ukrainian city of Dnipro, remarking: “Today, it was a new Russian missile. Its speed and altitude suggest intercontinental ballistic capabilities. Investigations are ongoing.”
American intelligence communicated their view, as usual, through their cut-outs at the New York Times, that paper communicating: “several Western officials said that the weapon was not an ICBM and instead was likely an intermediate-range missile that flies shorter distances. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity”.
The UK government was also circumspect, calling the reports “concerning” but refusing to be drawn otherwise. A Downing Street spokesman said they don’t want to “get ahead of our intelligence services who are looking at these reports urgently… But if true, clearly this would be another example of grave, reckless and escalatory behaviour from Russia”.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the alleged ICBM launch. At a morning briefing, top Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov merely said “I have nothing to say on this topic right now”.