The Russian Defense Ministry assured that the Ukrainian armed forces attacked Bryansk region with long-range ATACMS missiles, days after the U.S. government give the green light to the use of these projectiles outside the borders of Ukraine.
The ministry reported the shooting around 3:25 a.m. (local time). at least six missilesof which five were shot down by Russian air defense systems and another was “damaged”. The attack caused no injuries, although the remains of one of the missiles fell into a military installation and caused a fire, according to the official Moscow version collected by the TASS agency.
Last weekend, Joe Biden’s administration withdrew its veto using ATACMS to attack targets in Russia, which opened up a new range of potential operations for Ukrainian forces, given that these missiles have a range of up to 300 kilometers.
The Pentagon claimed that Russia had moved its air bases out of range of US long-range ATACMS missiles delivered by Washington to kyiv, which recently received authorization from the Joe Biden administration to attack Russian territory with these weapons.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated in a report published last August that Russia had fewer 300 kilometers from the border at least 245 military or paramilitary objectives. In this provisional list, there were 16 air bases.
However, a spokeswoman for the United States Department of Defense acknowledged that Russia had moved all airfields further than 300 kilometers to anticipate a possible policy change of the North American country.
The Kremlin has warned that the endorsement of the United States to the use of ATACMS may involve the start of a new phase of the conflict, under which Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a change in nuclear doctrine on Tuesday that expands the type of threats Moscow reserves the right to respond to.
