Ukraine has used US-supplied missiles on Russian territory for first time, Moscow says

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The Russian Defence Ministry is claiming that Ukraine has launched US-supplied ATACMS missiles at Russian territory for the first time on Tuesday.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said Ukraine “struck a facility in the Bryansk region with six ballistic missiles”.

“According to confirmed data, American-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles were used,” the statement said.

Moscow went on to say its air defences had shot down five of the missiles and damaged one more.

“The fragments fell on the technical territory of a military facility in the Bryansk region, causing fire that was quickly extinguished. There was no damage or causalities.” Euronews could not independently confirm these claims.

Several Ukrainian media outlets reported on Tuesday that, according to undisclosed military sources, Ukrainian forces had struck a Russian military facility in the Bryansk town of Karachev with US-supplied missiles.

If confirmed, the strike would mark the first case of Ukraine using the US-made and supplied ATACMS missiles on Russian territory since Washington lifted its restrictions few days ago.

Kyiv officials say that Ukraine struck a Russian arms depot around 110km inside Russia, but they have not yet specified what weapons were used. “The destruction of Russian army ammunition depots to stop the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine will continue,” General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy declined to confirm whether the attack was carried out by a US-made ATACMS missile, but he said that Ukraine has long-range weapons and will employ them.

“Without unnecessary details. Ukraine has long-range capabilities and produces its own long-range drones; we now have a long-range Neptune, and not just one. We now have ATACMS. We’re going to use it all,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.

Earlier, commenting on Washington’s decision to lift its restrictions on the use of ATACMS, the Ukrainian leader did not directly confirm the reports, saying that “strikes are not carried out with words” and “such things are not announced” but that “the missiles will speak for themselves.”

Which restrictions have been lifted?

Washington lifted the ATACMS use restrictions in response to North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It has not been clarified if the US-supplied long-range missile can be used in all of Russia, in the border regions or only in the region of Kursk, where more than 10,000 Pyongyang soldiers are on the ground.

If the claims about the first Ukrainian ATACMS strike in the Bryansk region are confirmed, that would mean that the restrictions have been lifted not only for Kursk but also for all border regions.

According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank (ISW), there are at least 245 known Russian military and paramilitary objects within the range of Ukrainian ATACMS, specifically their 300-kilometre variant.

Russian officials have been using threatening rhetoric for a long time as part of their effort to deter the US and other Ukraine allies from lifting the long-range missile restrictions, calling it an “escalation”.

On Tuesday, a few hours after the claimed attack in Bryansk, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving its updated nuclear doctrine, shifting the parameters on when Russia can use nuclear weapons.

The updated document, outlining the conditions in which Russia can use nuclear weapons, now states that any aggression against Russia by a non-nuclear state, if a nuclear power supports it, will be considered a joint attack.

This US authorisation is considered to be a rather mild response to the Kremlin’s escalatory introduction of North Korean troops as active combatants in Russia’s war against Ukraine, given the fact that both Moscow and Pyongyang are nuclear powers, ISW said.