(Tribune News Service) — Russia’s defense ministry vowed unspecified “retaliatory measures” after Ukraine launched U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles at the border region of Belgorod on Friday.
The ministry said earlier on Saturday that it had successfully downed eight of the tactical missiles as well as dozens of Ukrainian drones over the past day.
Ukraine’s actions were supported by Kyiv’s “Western curators,” Russia said.
It wasn’t the first time Ukraine has used the U.S. long-range weapons to strike targets within Russia since President Joe Biden in November approved limited use of the missiles by Kyiv’s forces.
Shortly after Ukraine fired the ATACMS in the days following Biden’s decision, President Vladimir Putin threated to strike “decision-making centers” in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with Russia’s new “Oreshnik” intermediate-range ballistic missile.
In December, Russia said Ukraine struck a military airfield in the Azov Sea area with six ATACMS, and Putin touted the Oreshniks again in his annual press conference on Dec. 19.
Kyiv’s future use of the missiles is in the balance, though. President-elect Donald Trump told Time magazine in December that he was “very vehemently” opposed to Ukraine using the missiles to strike Russia, calling Biden’s decision to authorize their use “foolish.”
St. Petersburg airport in Russia’s northwest was closed for several hours on Saturday as a response to drone activity in the area. Ukrainian media reported drones attacks on the large Ust-Luga seaport near Russia’s border with Estonia — about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Ukraine. Leningrad Region Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram that four UAVs had been destroyed over the territory but didn’t specifically mention the seaport. The extent of any damage was unclear.
Ukraine said on Saturday that Russian launched 81 Russian drones overnight on its territory.
At least three people were reported injured when a Russian glide bomb strike on a multistory apartment building in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine.
Separately, Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region of Ukraine’s east, continues to be a focus of Russian ground attacks, according to an update from Ukraine’s General Staff.
Russian troops have been active to the east, southeast, south and southwest of Pokrovsk, according to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War. The forces may also be making “opportunistic advances” west toward the border of the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, ISW said.
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