US-supplied ATACMS missiles being fired from an undisclosed location in Ukraine [File: Lachen Pyshe/Telegram via AP]
AL JAZEERA | Published January 5, 2025
Outgoing US President Joe Biden has authorised Kyiv to use the long-range weapons against Russia.
Russia has pledged to retaliate after it claimed to have shot down eight US-supplied ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine at its border region of Belgorod.
“On January 3, an attempt was made from Ukrainian territory to launch a missile attack against the Belgorod region using US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles,” the Russian Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.
“These actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation,” it added, saying all the missiles were shot down.
The ministry said earlier that air defences downed eight ATACMS missiles in total, without saying when or where.
Officials in Ukraine have not yet responded to the accusation.
The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) has a range of 300km (190 miles) and was first developed in the 1980s.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden had authorised Kyiv to use long-range weapons against Russia last year, in a move the Kremlin denounced as a grave escalation of the nearly three-year conflict. Biden is expected to announce additional security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, according to White House spokesperson John Kirby.
US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview last month he was “very vehemently” opposed to Ukraine using the arms, which he said were “escalating” the conflict.
Besides military support from the US, Kyiv will also reportedly receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighters this month, according to French magazine Avions Legendaires.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened last year to strike central Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile if Ukraine continued hitting Russian territory with long-range Western weapons.
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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
RELATED: Russia vows retaliation after saying it downed eight US-made long-range missiles
An early version of an Army Tactical Missile System is tested December 14, 2021, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
CNN | Published January 5, 2025
Russia has vowed retaliation after claiming to have shot down eight US-made ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine on Saturday morning.
Moscow sees the use of such missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), as a major escalation.
The country’s air defenses shot down the eight ballistic missiles alongside 72 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. It added that “these actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.”
The statement said several drones were destroyed in the Leningrad region in the north-west and one in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer.
The outgoing US President Joe Biden approved Kyiv’s use of ATACMS in November – saying in part it was in response to Russia expanding the conflict by deploying North Korean troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond to Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS with Russia’s new nuclear-capable ballistic missile “Oreshnik.”
Last month, Putin suggested that it could be fired at the capital Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense systems.
The first and only launch of the experimental weapon targeted Ukraine’s Dnipro region on the morning of November 21.
The Ukrainian drone attacks forced temporary restrictions to be introduced at an airport in St. Petersburg, Russian state media agency TASS reported.
The governor of Leningrad oblast, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said in a statement on Telegram that the “night and morning of January 4 were record-breaking in terms of the number of UAVs destroyed,” with four shot down over his region.
A Ukrainian security official, Andrii Kovalenko, said a seaport in Leningrad was targeted, calling it an “instrument of economic and military survival for Russia in isolation.”
Meanwhile, Russia launched a total of 81 drones at Ukraine overnight on Friday into Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force Command, including Iranian-made Shahed drones and “various types of imitation drones.”
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
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