Ukraine has launched British-made Storm Shadow missiles at military targets in Russia for the first time, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The attack follows Ukraine’s first use of US long-range Atacms missiles on Russian soil on Tuesday, after authorisation from US President Joe Biden.
A western official briefed on the strike said that at least one Russian military target had been fired at by multiple missiles.
Kyiv has been pleading for months with western allies to use their long-range weapons to hit Russian territory as Ukrainian troops struggle to hold on to land they have occupied in the Kursk region.
A Russian pro-war military blog on social media app Telegram posted photos on Wednesday of what it said were fragments from a Storm Shadow missile, including engravings indicating it as such.
The blog said the fragments had landed near Marino, a village in the Kursk region. Alexei Smirnov, the local governor, said that Russian air defences had shot down two Ukrainian missiles.
In reference to the posts, Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian air force official, wrote on Facebook that “there was a ‘strong storm’ in Kursk region”.
Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadows and France’s equivalent Scalp missiles was discussed in informal conversations among western officials on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, according to a person present during the conversations.
Sending “a clear message on North Korean soldiers [who have recently been deployed to assist Russian forces] made a lot of sense”, the person said.
Biden’s decision to authorise the use of Atacms came two months before president-elect Donald Trump, who has said he will swiftly bring the conflict to an end, re-enters office.
The White House has been nervous about possible escalation of the conflict. Putin has previously said that a move to allow the use of long-range western weapons in Russia would essentially mean Nato countries were directly at war with Moscow.
On Tuesday, Russia officially adjusted its military doctrine to lower the threshold to use nuclear weapons.
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