Russian air defenses have intercepted two UK-produced Storm Shadow missiles fired by Ukraine over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Thursday.
The ministry did not specify where exactly the British-supplied munitions were intercepted when it relayed the news during its Thursday briefing.
On Tuesday, the British state broadcaster the BBC reported, citing defense sources, that Ukraine has fired Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia’s Kursk Region.
The claim followed outgoing US President Joe Biden reportedly permitting Kiev to use American ATACMS missiles to strike territory which is internationally recognized as part of Russia. Neither Washington nor London have officially confirmed allowing Ukraine to deploy their long-range weaponry for such purposes.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has long been lobbying NATO to authorize long-range strikes on Russia, which prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to issue a warning to the bloc in September.
According to Putin, Kiev is incapable of launching NATO-provisioned long-range missiles without obtaining targeting data and assistance from the US and other bloc members. Any such attack would thus mean the West and Russia were directly at war with each other, Putin explained.
The updated Russian nuclear doctrine, which was approved earlier this week, states that an attack on the country by a foreign nation that does not have weapons of mass destruction, but is backed by a nuclear power, should be considered a joint attack by both. Moscow’s goal is to make sure “a potential aggressor realizes that retaliation will be inevitable” if the country’s security is threatened, the document reads.
On Tuesday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, warned that, in response to these latest long-range attacks, “Russia reserves the right to retaliate with weapons of mass destruction against Kiev and key NATO facilities, wherever they may be located.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the launch of the first ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk Region on Tuesday was a “clear sign that they [the US and their allies] want escalation” of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.