Russia threatens Europe with strikes while gnawing at Ukraine’s east

Moscow threatens retaliation after the US allowed Ukraine to strike inside Russia, keeping alive its implied nuclear menace.

The United States on Tuesday provided the first official confirmation that its long-range Army Tactical Missiles (ATACMS) were in use in Russia, as Europe absorbed the ramifications of Russia’s retaliatory response with an intermediate ballistic missile that could strike “anywhere in Europe”.

As the question of strategic escalation swirled around NATO capitals and Moscow, Russian forces continued a dogged advance through Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, seizing more villages.

“Right now, they are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk oblast.”

In a change of communications tactics, the Russian Ministry of Defence, too, acknowledged Ukrainian ATACMS strikes.

Moscow authorities have often fudged Ukrainian missile and drone hits, claiming “falling debris” from a destroyed incoming missile has struck infrastructure and inflamed it.