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Writer's pictureSAUDI ARABIA BREAKING NEWS

Ukraine Launches UK Cruise Missiles Into Russia, A Day After Using US ATACMS

Ukraine Launches UK Cruise Missiles Into Russia, A Day After Using US ATACMS
Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 20, 2024

BUCHAREST, November 21, 2024 (Saudi Arabia Breaking news) – Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, the ;latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets a day after it fired U.S. ATACMS missiles.

 

The strikes were widely reported by Russian war correspondents on Telegram and confirmed by an official on condition of anonymity. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s General Staff said he had no information.

 

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow’s invasion, which entered its 1,000th day this week.

 

Accounts of Russia war correspondents on Telegram posted video they said included the sound of the missiles striking Kursk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.

 

At least 14 huge explosion could be heard, most of them preceded by the sharp whistle of what sounded like an incoming missile. The video, shot in a residential area, showed black smoke rising in the distance.

 

The pro-Russian Two Major channel on Telegram said Ukraine fired up to 12 Storm Shadows into the Kursk region and carried pictures of missile pieces with the name Storm Shadow clearly visible.

 

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to comment.

 

Britain had previously allowed Ukraine to use Storm Shadows, which have a range in excess of 250 km (155 miles), within Ukrainian territory.

 

The Kyiv government has been pressing Westerns for permission to use such weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia, and it obtained the all-clear from U.S. President Joe Biden to use the ATACMS this week, two months before Biden leaves office.

 

As Ukraine’s use of the missiles raised tensions, the United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday as a precaution due to what it called the threat of a significant air attack. It later said the embassy would reopen on Thursday.

 

The Pentagon on Wednesday also announced $275 million in military aid to Ukraine that included more ammunition for the HIMARS rocket system, and the Biden administration moved to forgive $4.7 billion in U.S. loans to Ukraine as outgoing officials sought to do with they could to bolster Kyiv before they leave office.

 

Biden successor, President-elect Donald Trump has said he will end the war, without saying how, and criticized billion of dollars in aid for Ukraine under Biden. The warring sides believe Trump is likely to push for peace talks – not known to have been held since the war’s earliest months – and are trying to attain strong positions before negotiations.

 

Kyiv says Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, has previously taken advantage of limits on Ukraine’s use of weapons, particularly to strike Ukrainian cities from the air with heavy bombs.

 

The fist use of the U.S. ATACMS on Tuesday, fired at a Russian arsenal in  the Bryansk region on Ukraine’s norther border, prompted firm words for the use from Moscow, which announced a change to its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of atomic weapons. Washington has said it sees no need to adjust its own nuclear posture and accused Moscow of resorting to irresponsible rhetoric.

 

 

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