Russia claimed on Saturday to have intercepted American ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine the day before and promised “retaliation”, this type of attack being presented by the Kremlin as a red line in the conflict.
“These actions of the kyiv regime, which is supported by its Western guardians, will be subject to reprisals,” the Russian army warned in a statement.
In recent weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to order his army to strike the city center of kyiv in response to Ukrainian attacks carried out with American ATACMS or British Storm Shadows, without however following through on his remarks to this effect. stadium.
Earlier on Saturday, the Russian army said it had intercepted “eight ATACMS missiles” the day before, during this attack, which were targeting the Russian region of Belgorod, on the border with Ukraine, and more than “72 drones”.
However, Moscow’s forces did not specify whether this Ukrainian attack had caused casualties or material damage.
In November, the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden authorized the use of such missiles by kyiv, after having long opposed it, following the deployment, according to the West and Ukraine, of thousands of soldiers North Koreans in support of Russian soldiers.
Since then, kyiv has carried out several rounds of attacks using these long-range ATACMS missiles, as well as British Storm Shadows.
Russia responded by firing for the first time an experimental hypersonic weapon called “Orechnik”, systematically promising “a response” to each Ukrainian attack of this type against its territory.
Trump opposed these strikes
American President-elect Donald Trump, whose return to the White House is scheduled for January 20, said in mid-December that he was “strongly opposed” to the use by the Ukrainian army of American ATACMS missiles, citing an “intensification » and a “worsening” of the conflict.
Near the border with Ukraine, two people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the town of Chebekino, according to the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
On the front, a Ukrainian strike left at least ten injured in the town of Gorlivka, in territory occupied by Moscow in eastern Ukraine, according to its mayor Ivan Prikhodko.
Further north, the Russian army claimed on Saturday the capture of the small town of Nadiïa in the Ukrainian region of Lugansk, which it annexed in 2022 and which it controls almost entirely.
Finally, four people were injured in a Russian drone attack in the South, according to the head of the municipal military administration of the large city of Kherson, Roman Mrochko.
In Russia, the Russian security services (FSB) announced on Saturday that they had arrested four minors suspected of wanting to commit a bomb attack “in busy places” in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Russian security organs have frequently announced the arrest of individuals suspected in particular of collaborating with kyiv.
Trials for “treason”, “terrorism”, “sabotage” or “espionage”, which always carry heavy sentences, have multiplied in the country.
Thousands of people have been sanctioned, threatened or imprisoned because of their opposition to the conflict in Ukraine.
