Russia intercepts eight US-supplied ATACMS missiles

The latest Ukrainian attack on Belgorod Region will elicit an appropriate response, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Ukrainian forces have carried out a new long-range attack on Belgorod Region using eight US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, all of which were shot down, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The incoming munitions were repelled by Russia’s S-400 and Pantsir-SM air defense systems, the military said. The ministry did not provide any information about the exact target of the attack or about any damage or casualties that may have been inflicted.

“The actions of the Kiev regime, supported by its Western handlers, will elicit retaliatory measures,” the military stressed.

Over the past few weeks, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly carried out long-range attacks on internationally-recognized Russian territory using various Western-supplied weaponry, including US-made ATACMS ballistic and French-British cruise missiles. The strikes came after some of Kiev’s Western backers lifted the restrictions they had imposed on the use of the long-range weaponry they had provided.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that such attacks make the US-led NATO bloc a direct party to the conflict, pointing out that Ukraine would be unable to deploy such high-precision weapons without the involvement of Western specialists.

Russia has carried out retaliatory strikes against numerous targets across Ukraine in response to the strikes. It also battle-tested its new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile system dubbed Oreshnik in late November. The system was used to strike Yuzhmash, a sprawling military industrial plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr. The warheads carried by an Oreshnik missile can travel at ten times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by any existing air defense systems, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.