Moscow announced Tuesday that Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and at least 146 drones into Russia in an attack that Moscow vowed would not go unanswered.
After Ukraine launched ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia last year, Moscow retaliated on Nov. 21 by firing a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile, “Oreshnik” (Hazel Tree), at Ukraine.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have shot down all of Ukraine’s Western missiles fired at the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone. It also reported shooting down two additional Storm Shadows over the Black Sea.
“The Kyiv regime’s actions, supported by its Western curators, will not go unanswered,” the defense ministry declared.
In November, President Vladimir Putin warned that the Ukraine war was escalating toward a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to fire their missiles deep into Russia for the first time.
President-elect Donald Trump has advocated for a ceasefire and negotiations to quickly end the war, raising doubts about Washington’s long-term support for Ukraine.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has caused tens of thousands of deaths, displaced millions, and triggered the worst crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The drone attack on Russia marked one of the largest to date.
Roman Busargin, governor of the Saratov region, located about 450 miles southeast of Moscow, reported that the cities of Saratov and Engels, on opposite banks of the Volga River, were targeted in a mass drone attack, damaging two industrial sites. Schools switched to remote learning, he said.
Ukraine had also attacked the same region the previous week, claiming to have struck an oil depot supplying an airbase for Russian nuclear bomber planes, causing a fire that took five days to extinguish.
The drone strike targeted a munitions storage facility containing guided bombs and missiles at the Engels airbase in Russia’s Saratov region, along with other sites, according to a source in the Security Service of Ukraine on Tuesday.
The attack also sparked large fires at the Aleksinsky chemical plant in the Tula region and the Saratovsky oil refinery, while the Bryansk chemical plant was also affected, the source said. Reuters could not independently verify the damage.
The source reported subsequent detonations at the Bryansk chemical plant and a large fire. Ukrainian defense forces and the SBU conducted the operation, according to the source in Kyiv.
Russia’s aviation watchdog announced flight restrictions at airports in Kazan, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk, and Nizhnekamsk.
