Ukrainian forces have for the first time used U.S.-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles to strike a target inside Russia, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement, which Ukraine has not yet confirmed, comes just days after U.S. media reported that the White House authorized Kyiv to use ATACMS to strike at targets inside Russia’s borders.
«Overnight, at 03:25 a.m. Moscow time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck a facility in the Bryansk region with six ATACMS ballistic missiles,» the Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said its air defense systems intercepted five of the ATACMS missiles, while one was damaged.
«Missile fragments fell on the technical area of a military facility and started a fire. The fire has already been extinguished,» the ministry said. It did not report any casualties or property damage.
Earlier on Tuesday, the RBC Ukraine news website, citing an anonymous source in the Ukrainian military, reported that Kyiv used ATACMS to target a facility in the Bryansk region town of Karachev.
Unverified videos posted on social media purportedly showed the aftermath of that attack, with a large fireball seen lighting up the night sky in the distance.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later said at the G20 summit in Rio, Brazil that the attack on Bryansk signaled the West was looking to escalate the war in Ukraine, which hit its 1,000-day mark on Tuesday.
«The fact that ATACMS was used repeatedly in the Bryansk region last night is, of course, a signal that they [in the West] want escalation. And without the Americans, it is impossible to use these high-tech missiles,» Lavrov said.
According to U.S. media reports, the White House has limited Kyiv’s use of ATACMS missiles to defending Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow is reportedly mounting a counteroffensive with North Korean troops.