Ukraine has fired US-supplied long-range missiles into Russia for the first time since Joe Biden lifted restrictions on their use – with Moscow warning that it would respond “accordingly” on a day where Vladimir Putin lowered the bar for the Kremlin to launch an attack using nuclear weapons.
Ukraine used the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region, about 80 miles (130 kilometres) from the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine now declares a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. The doctrine, which lays the conditions under which Russia’s ledareship might consider a nuclear strike, also states that an attack using conventional missiles, drones or other kinds of aircraft could be seen as justification for such an attack.
Downing Street condmned the change as the “latest example of irresponsibility” from the “depraved Russian government”.
Russia has been planning to update its nuclear doctrine for months, but the timing of Putin putting his signature on the changes signals a significant escalation in the war, coming in the wake of Mr Biden’s decision to allow Kyiv to conduct strikes with the 190-mile range ATACMS inside Russia.
Moscow said Ukraine had fired six ATACMS. US officals told American media, and Ukrainian officials told the RBC-Ukraine outlet that ATACMS had been used to hit an ammunition warehouse in Bryansk, which sits northwest of Kursk, where a Ukrainian assualt has been underway since the summer.
“Indeed, for the first time, we used ATACMS to strike Russian territory. The strike was carried out against a facility in the Bryansk region, and it was successfully hit,” the military source told RBC. Ukraine’s military said it had struck a Russian arms depot in an attack that caused a number of secondary explosions. The Ukrainian military did not publicly specify what weapons it had used. A Telegram channel affiliated with the Ukrainian military posted a video that it said showed US-supplied ATACMS missiles being fired from an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, the Russian Defense Ministry said the military shot down five ATACMS missiles and damaged one more. The fragments fell on the territory of an unspecified military facility, the ministry said. The falling debris sparked a fire, but didn’t cause any damage or casualties, it said.
Speaking at the G20 summit in Brazile, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said: “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.”
“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.
The attack took place as Ukraine marked 1,000 days of war, with weary troops at the front, Ukrainian cities besieged by airstrikes, a fifth of Ukrainian territory in Moscow’s hands and doubts about the future of Western support as Donald Trump heads back to the White House. US officials have expressed dismay at Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops to help it fight, particularly around Kursk, where around 50,000 Russian troops have massed.
Asked about his response to Russia ramping up a nuclear threat, Sir Keir Starmer said “the quickest way for this conflict to end is for Russia to cease”.
The UK has its own long-range missiles that Ukraine could use to strike inside Russia, Storm Shadows, which typically rely on US technology for targeting. They have been used to date on Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, but not beyond. The authorisation to use them inside Russia is yet to come, but speaking to the BBC in Rio de Janeiro, the prime minister said: “We must ensure Ukraine has whatever is needed for as long as it’s needed to be put in the strongest possible position”
“Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine and today is the day that marks 1,000 days of the conflict,” he added. “That is 1,000 days of Russian aggression, 1,000 days of Ukraine suffering from that aggression, and we’ve said throughout that we stand firmly with Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was working with all partners to win their support for longer-range strikes, calling out Germany in particular.
“I think after statements about nuclear weapons, it is also time for Germany to support corresponding decisions,” Mr Zelensky said during a briefing in Kyiv with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who held an hour-long call with Putin last week, has been hesitant to provide long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, fuelling frustration in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader had earlier said North Korea could deploy up to 100,000 troops in Russia. “Now, Putin has brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders… This contingent may grow to 100,000,” Mr Zelensky said in a virtual address to the European parliament, echoing a statement made by South Korea’s spy agency last week.
The address comes after a series of Russian airstrikes which Mr Zelensky cited as as evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no interest in ending the war. The incoming US president, Mr Trump, has suggested that he would look to end the war in 24 hours. That is typical hyperbole, but Kyiv is concerened it could be railroaded into agreement that could force it to give up territory occupied by Russia. That is something Mr Zelensky has said he would not do.
A third Russian strike in three days hit a civilian residential area in Ukraine, killing at least 12 people, including a child, officials said on Tuesday. The strike by a Shahed drone in the northern Sumy region late Monday hit a dormitory of an educational facility in the town of Hlukhiv and wounded 11 others, including two children, authorities said, adding that more people could be trapped under the rubble.
On Sunday, a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 84 others. On Monday, a Russian missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people and wounding 43.
“Each new attack by Russia only confirms Putin’s true intentions. He wants the war to continue. Talks about peace are not interesting to him. We must force Russia to a just peace by force,” Mr Zelensky said.
Mr Zelensky also urged his citizens to stay “resilient” in a separate hour-long address to Ukraine’s parliament.
“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail – whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians… and Europeans, and everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator,” Mr Zelensky said.