Ukraine fires first US long-range missiles into Russia

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine said on Tuesday it had fired US-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory in the first such strike, as Russia declared a “new phase” in the conflict and eased its protocol for nuclear strikes.

A senior official told AFP that a strike on Russia´s Bryansk region earlier on Tuesday “was carried out by ATACMS missiles” -- a reference to the US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System.

Speaking 1,000 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Washington´s decision to authorise Kyiv to use such missiles, which have a range of up to 300-kms.

“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,” Lavrov told a press conference at the G20 summit in Brazil.

The grim milestone opened with a Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy that gutted a Soviet-era residential building and killed at least 12 people, including a child.

President Volodymyr Zelensky published images of rescue workers hauling bodies from the debris and called on Kyiv´s allies to “force” the Kremlin into peace.

The foreign ministry said Ukraine “will never submit to the occupiers” and called for “peace through strength, not appeasement,” referring to growing calls for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia to end the war.

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut US assistance to Ukraine and bring about a swift end to the war, without detailing how he would do so.

Washington this week said it had cleared Ukraine to use ATACMS against military targets inside Russia -- a long-standing Ukrainian request.

Russia said on Tuesday that Ukraine had used the missiles against a facility in the Bryansk region close to the border overnight.

“At 03:25 am (0025 GMT), the enemy struck a site in the Bryansk region with six ballistic missiles. According to confirmed data, US-made ATACMS tactical missiles were used,” said a defence ministry statement.

Lavrov said the missiles could not have been fired without US technical assistance and said the strikes showed the West and Kyiv want “escalation”.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons against its internationally recognised territory would make the US a direct participant in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree broadening the scope of when Moscow can use nuclear weapons in a clear message to the West and Ukraine.

The new doctrine outlines that Russia will consider using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state if they are supported by nuclear powers.