Politics Moscow: Ukraine fires at Russia with ATACMS from the USA
According to Moscow, Ukraine has fired six US-made ATACMS missiles at a target in Russia. Five of the missiles were intercepted by Russian air defenses, according to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow.
19.11.2024, 14:25
SDA
If the information is correct, it would be the first known attack since the USA allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS against targets in Russia.
The sixth missile was damaged, the ministry announced on its telegram channel. Its debris had fallen on a military site in the Bryansk region near the border. A fire had been extinguished. "There are no casualties or destruction," it said.
The location information coincided with information from Ukraine. The General Staff in Kiev reported a night-time attack on a Russian ammunition depot near the city of Karachev in the Bryansk region. Twelve secondary explosions were observed in the depot, the military announced on Facebook. This refers to the detonation of stored ammunition after an impact.
Media in Kiev also reported, citing unnamed military officials, that the ATACMS missiles supplied by the USA had been used. "The object was successfully destroyed," the RBK-Ukraine portal quoted an army source as saying. None of this information could be independently verified.
Release of US weapons in response to soldiers from North Korea?
According to media reports, the USA only recently allowed Ukraine to use the weapons with a range of up to 300 kilometers against targets in Russia. This is seen as a response to the suspected deployment of North Korean soldiers on Moscow's side. Russia, for its part, sees the US weapons as an escalation and an involvement of the USA and other Western states in the war, which has been going on for exactly 1,000 days.
Until now, Ukraine was only allowed to use HIMARS missile artillery from the USA against targets close to the Russian border in order to fend off the offensive against the major eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The decision by outgoing US President Joe Biden has met with criticism in the camp of his successor Donald Trump.
There was also talk of explosions near Karachev on a Russian military blog and on unofficial Telegram channels. The city is around 115 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
