Ukraine struck a large Russian weapons facility in the Bryansk region early Tuesday, the 1,000th day of war — in what Ukrainian media outlets claimed was the first strike with a US-supplied long-range missile.
Kyiv confirmed that it obliterated an arsenal depot near the town of Karachev, around 70 miles from its border, without specifying what missile was used.
However, an unidentified defense source told RBC-Ukraine that it was a US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which lame-duck President Biden recently gave permission for Ukraine to use, sparking threats of all-out World War III.
“Indeed, for the first time, we used ATACMS to strike Russian territory,” the source said.
“The strike was carried out against a facility in the Bryansk region, and it was successfully hit.”
Footage posted online showed the fiery explosion closely followed by a huge plume of smoke.
The attack was followed by 12 secondary explosions and detonations in the area of the strike, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a statement on the Telegram app.
“The destruction of ammunition depots will continue for the army of the Russian occupiers in order to stop the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” the military said.
Ukraine often uses domestically produced drones to hit targets deep inside Russia but the military stopped short of specifying that weapon was used on the arsenal in Karachev.
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region early Tuesday morning.
The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the United States as he signed a law Tuesday allowing for a nuclear strike in retaliation for a long-range missile attack.
The updated doctrine, which lowers the threshold for a nuclear strike, comes just days after the Biden administration reportedly granted Ukraine permission to use US-supplied weapons to strike deep into Russia’s Kursk region.
Sources indicated that Kyiv planned to begin such strikes in the coming days.
Russian lawmakers were quick to slam Washington’s policy reversal in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and accused Biden of recklessly taking a “very big step” towards starting World War III.
“This is a very big step towards the start of World War III,” said Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
With Post wires
