The U.S. Army conducting live-fire tests of ATACMS missiles in New Mexico – photo released December 14, 2021 (DoD/John Hamilton)
Russia reported on Tuesday that it had been targeted again in recent days by two Ukrainian strikes carried out using American ATACMS missiles, a weapon against which Moscow has promised a severe response.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces struck “facilities” in Russia's border region of Kursk on November 23 near the village of Lotarevka, 37 kilometers northwest of the city of Kursk, and on November 25 against the Kursk-Vostochny airfield.
The ministry recognized, a rare occurrence, that several missiles “hit their targets” and reported two Russian soldiers injured and a radar damaged in these Ukrainian shots.
According to him, three ATACAMS missiles out of the five fired were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft defense during the November 23 attack and seven projectiles out of eight fired during the November 25 attack.
“Examination of the attacked sites made it possible to confirm that the Ukrainian armed forces used American-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles,” the Russian ministry said.
He also said he was “preparing a response” to these attacks, which Russia considers to cross a red line.
A first Ukrainian attack using ATACAMS missiles took place on November 19 and on November 21, kyiv forces fired British-made Storm Shadow missiles at Russia.
Russia responded by firing an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile on November 21 at a military factory in the city of Dnipro, in east-central Ukraine.
This experimental missile, called Orechnik and previously unknown, is designed to carry nuclear warheads, which was not the case during this attack.
In response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil using Western missiles, Mr. Putin promised to repeat this type of strike and threatened to target Western countries that help kyiv.
