Ukraine has struck the capital of Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, local authorities have claimed. According to officials, fragments from the weapon were found at the scene of the strike.
In a message shared on their Telegram channel on Thursday, LPR representatives from the Joint Centre of Control and Coordination (JCCC) alleged that Ukrainian forces had used “stealth long-range air-based Franco-British Storm Shadow cruise missiles” in their latest attack on the city of Lugansk.
Parts of a Storm Shadow nose cone were found at the area hit by the strike, officials claimed, also sharing a photo which apparently showed the fragments.
The interim head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, wrote on his Telegram channel that the “Ukrainian Nazis struck an industrial area in Lugansk.”
Pasechnik said four people had sustained injuries as a result of the attack, with the emergency services working at the site.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed in mid-May that air defenses had shot down seven Storm Shadow missiles, without specifying the location of the alleged intercepts.
Several days prior, LPR authorities said that the long-range projectiles had been used in a Ukrainian attack on the city of Lugansk, with a number of households suffering damage. The strike left six children inured, local officials said at the time.
The report came just days after the UK confirmed the delivery of Storm Shadows to Ukraine.
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted at the time that the weapons would help Kiev to “push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory.”
With a range of up to 300km (200 miles), Storm Shadow missiles are the longest-range weapons supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers to date.
Moreover, the cruise missile is said to boast stealth capabilities thanks to its relatively small size and ability to hug terrain to avoid radar detection.
Moscow has condemned the decision to supply the projectiles to Kiev as an “extremely hostile step by London,” claiming that it demonstrates Britain’s “unprecedented level of involvement” in the conflict.
Russia has also warned that Storm Shadow shipments would lead to “serious escalation” in Ukraine.