The announcement comes shortly after Washington lifted restrictions on Ukraine using longer-range U.S.-made missiles to strike Russia.
Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday, days after U.S. President Joe Biden eased restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American-made weapons in the war which has reached the 1,000 day mark.
The use of the military’s tactical missile system, known as ATACMS, came as Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons, opening the door to a possible response nuclear power of Moscow, even in the event of a conventional attack by a country supported by a nuclear power. This could include U.S.-backed Ukrainian attacks.
A Telegram channel affiliated with the Ukrainian military posted a video Tuesday that it said shows a U.S.-supplied ATACMS missile being fired from an undisclosed location in Ukraine. The Associated Press could not independently verify the date or location where the video was filmed.
These events mark a new worrying escalation in a conflict which has continued to inflame international tensions. US officials recently expressed dismay over Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops to help fight Ukrainewhile Moscow threw a tantrum when Washington eased restrictions on ATACMS in recent days.
The 1,000 day milestone has heightened attention to how the war is unfolding and how it might end, amid signs that a turning point could come with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump entering the White House in about two months. Mr. Trump has pledged to quickly end the war and criticized the amount of money the United States spent to support Ukraine.
According to analysts, neither Russia nor Ukraine can sustain the war for long, although Russia is able to continue for longer due to its greater resources.
Ukrainian forces are under heavy Russian pressure on the battlefield, in places along the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line where the Ukrainian army is on its last legs. Ukrainian civilians, meanwhile, have been repeatedly bombarded by Russian drones and missiles.
Arms depot hit, according to Kyiv, without specifying with which weapons
Ukraine said it struck a military weapons depot in Bryansk in the middle of the night, but did not specify which weapons it used. The Ukrainian General Staff said multiple explosions and detonations were heard in the targeted area.
In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, the Russian Defense Ministry said the military had shot down five army tactical missile systems, known as ATACMS, and damaged another.
The fragments fell on the territory of an unspecified military installation, the ministry said. The debris started a fire, but did not cause any damage or casualties.
The statements from both parties could not be independently verified.
Karachev is approximately 115 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border. Over the course of the war, Ukraine was able to penetrate much deeper into the vast country, but with drones rather than missiles. For example, Russian officials have reported intercepting Ukrainian drones over Moscow, which is about 500 kilometers from the border, and more recently over Izhevsk, a city about 1,450 kilometers from the border. .
Deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine continue
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials reported that a third Russian strike in three days on civilian residential area in Ukraine had killed at least 12 people, including a child.
Drone strike Shahid in the northern Sumy region late Monday hit a dormitory of an educational institution in the town of Hlukhiv and injured 11 people, including two children, authorities said, adding that more people could be trapped under the rubble.
Ukrainian civilians have been repeatedly hit by Russian drones and missiles during the war, while on the battlefield Ukraine is under heavy Russian pressure in some places along the front line of around 1 000 kilometers, where his army is out of breath facing an adversary larger than it.
A Russian ballistic missile equipped with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine on Sunday, killing 11 people and injuring 84 others. On Monday, a Russian missile strike sparked apartment fires in the port of Odessa in the south of the country, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the series of airstrikes proved that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not interested in ending the war.
“Each new attack by Russia only confirms Putin’s true intentions. He wants the war to continue. Talks about peace don’t interest him. We must force Russia into a just peace by force,” Zelensky said.
“A thousand days of courage, resilience and unwavering spirit”
Mr Zelensky told European Union lawmakers in a speech via video link that Russia had deployed around 11,000 North Korean troops along Ukraine’s borders and the number could reach 100 000.
He visited Ukraine’s parliament in person, where he presented what he called a “resilience plan” to confront Russia’s continued attacks. He said he expected crucial moments to come in the war next year.
The plan outlines new approaches to managing the military, including the creation of a military ombudsman position and a new system for managing military contracts.
There are no plans to lower the age of mobilization, currently set at 25, even though Ukraine lacks personnel on the front, particularly in the infantry.
Next year, Ukraine plans to produce at least 30,000 long-range drones and aims to make 3,000 long-range missiles, Zelensky said, reducing its dependence on Western military support.
A more complete version of the plan will be presented next month.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Western countries were debating additional aid to Ukraine: “We need to give them more help, more money, especially now that the North- Koreans have entered the game,” he said in Brussels.
Meanwhile, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola led a special plenary session on Ukraine, marking “a thousand days of terror, suffering and unimaginable loss.” A thousand days of courage, resilience and unwavering spirit.”