Ukraine Strikes Inside Russia with U.S.-Provided Weapons
This article originally appeared on Antiwar.com and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Dave DeCamp
On Tuesday, a member of Ukraine’s parliament told The New York Times that Ukraine had launched strikes on Russian territory using US-provided HIMARS rocket systems after President Biden lifted restrictions on Kyiv’s use of the weapons.
Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, claimed the strikes destroyed S-300 and S-400 missile systems about 20 miles inside Russia’s Belgorod Oblast.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also hinted that Ukraine hit Russian territory with Western-provided weapons. In a now-deleted post on Telegram, Vereshchuk shared a picture of a burning S-300 system and said, “It’s burning well. This is a Russian S-300. On Russian territory. The first days after permission to use Western weapons on the enemy’s territory.”
President Biden gave Ukraine the green light to hit Russian territory with US-provided missiles last week, marking a significant escalation of the proxy war. If Chernev and Vereshchuk’s claims are true, the strikes risk a major response from Russia.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and other Western officials have shrugged off the risk of escalation, but Russian officials continue to issue warnings. On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov urged the US to heed President Vladimir Putin’s warning against NATO-supported strikes inside Russia.
“I would like to caution American officials against miscalculations which may have fatal consequences. For some unknown reason, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive,” Ryabkov said.
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