Ukraine has fired US-supplied longer-range missiles at a target inside Russian territory for the first time, a day after Washington gave its permission for such attacks.
US officials confirmed use of the Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) to CBS news, the BBC’s US partner.
Russia’s defence ministry earlier 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.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin approved changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, setting out new conditions under which the country would consider using its arsenal.
It now says an attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will be treated as a joint assault on Russia. Credit: bbc.com
