Russia is preparing a response to Ukrainian ATACMS attacks on Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.
In an official statement on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that over the past three days, Ukraine’s forces had conducted two long-range strikes on Kursk Region using Western weaponry.
On November 23, Kiev reportedly fired five long-range ATACMS missiles at village of Lotaryovka, some 37km northwest of the city of Kursk, targeting the position of an S-400 anti-aircraft missile division. The strike resulted in three casualties and damaged the radar, the ministry said.
Additionally, on November 25, Kiev launched another eight ATACMS at the Kursk-Vostochny airfield, located near the village of Khalino. Seven of the missiles were shot down using the S-400 missile defense system and the Pantsir air defense missile and gun system. However, one of the missiles managed to reach its target. As a result, two servicemen were injured while facilities were “slightly damaged,” according to the report.
The ministry noted that inspections of the target areas have “reliably confirmed” that Kiev’s forces had used US-supplied ATACMS missiles to carry out the attacks. The ministry also published several photos of what are purported to be the remains of the US-made rockets.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense is monitoring the situation, and response actions are being prepared,” the report concluded.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of the country's brand-new hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile as a response to Biden's authorization for Kiev to use ATACMS. The new Russian weapon, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, was used against a Ukrainian military industrial facility in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.
Putin called the strike a “combat test” of the state-of-the-art weapon and warned that such “tests” would continue, depending on the circumstances and that Russia would respond “decisively and in a mirror-like manner” to the further escalation of aggressive actions by Kiev and it foreign backers.