Ukraine has carried out its first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles.
Six missiles were used in a strike on an ammunition depot in Karachev, around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia’s Bryansk region on what is the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
The missile launch came just days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light, despite fears it could escalate the conflict beyond control.
Eyewitnesses and Russian military bloggers first reported the attack, with Ukrainian military officials later confirming to RBC Ukraine the strike was conducted with the US-manufactured ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System).
Reports of the strike emerged within minutes of the Kremlin threatening a ‘nuclear response’ should Ukraine hit targets on Russian soil with Western-supplied long-range munitions.
“The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against it with the use of conventional weapons,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Russia this morning.
His statement followed Vladimir Putin’s approval of an updated nuclear doctrine that allows his strategic forces to deploy nuclear weapons if Russian or Belarusian territory is threatened by a non-nuclear nation supported by a nuclear power.
Threats that could make Russia’s leadership consider a nuclear strike include an attack with conventional missiles, drones, or other aircraft, according to the updated document.
A Ukrainian strike on Russian territory with US-supplied missiles meets these criteria, raising fears that Moscow could consider a dramatic escalation in the conflict.
But intelligence sources believe that Putin will be unwilling to take any action which could potentially undermine any deal put forward by the in-coming President Donald Trump.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a defiant statement in spite of the Kremlin’s nuclear sabre-rattling, declaring that “Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law.
“We need peace through strength, not appeasement,” the ministry added, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Kyiv’s allies to “force” Moscow into a “just peace” and vowed his troops would “never surrender”.
Zelensky has long pressed his Western allies to allow his country to strike military targets deeper inside Russia, saying the restriction had made it impossible for Kyiv to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
But Kyiv’s Western backers had resisted his pleas amid fears that doing so would cross a ‘red line’ set by Putin – until this past weekend when the Biden administration lifted the blanket ban.
The Ukrainian President said last month he believed the war could be ended in 2025, provided that Western nations provide Ukraine with enough military and diplomatic support as part of his ‘peace plan’.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also backed Zelensky in comments to reporters in Brussels today as he joined EU ministers for defence talks on the 1,000th day of the war.
“Why is this so crucial that Putin will not get his way? Because you will have an emboldened Russia on our border… and I’m absolutely convinced it will not stop there,” Rutte said.
“It is then posing a direct threat to all of us in the West,” he said, adding he would “discuss how we can help Ukraine to prevail.”
“We need simply to do more. We have to ramp up the defence industry,” he said.
Rutte’s comments come as NATO holds its largest-ever artillery exercise just 70 miles from the border where the British Army is testing what military chiefs have described as a “game-changing” weapon.
