Ukraine fires US-supplied longer-range missiles into Russia, Moscow says
Ukraine has fired US-supplied longer-range missiles at Russian territory for the first time, the Russian government said, a day after Washington gave its permission for such attacks.
US officials also confirmed use of the Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) to CBS news, the BBC's US partner. Ukraine has not commented.
Russia's defence ministry said the strike targeted the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine to the north on Tuesday morning.
Five missiles were shot down and one damaged, with its fragments causing a fire at a military facility in the region, the ministry said.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of trying to escalate the conflict.
"That Atacms was used repeatedly overnight against Bryansk Region is of course a signal that they [the US] want escalation," he said.
"And without the Americans, use of these high-tech missiles, as Putin has said many times, is impossible."
He said Russia would "proceed from the understanding" that the missiles were operated by "American military experts".
"We will be taking this as a renewed face of the western war against Russia and we will react accordingly," he told a press conference at the G20 in Rio de Janeiro.
Source: BBC
