Russia warns Ukraine’s ATACMS attacks mark ‘new phase’ of war
Al Jazeera
Warning comes as President Vladimir Putin lowers threshold for using Russia nuclear arsenal in move decried as ‘irresponsible’ by the West.
Russia has said that Ukraine’s use of long-range ATACMS missiles against its territory marked a “new phase of the Western war” against Moscow, and has said it will react “accordingly”.
Ukraine used the US-made missiles to target a military facility in Russia’s Bryansk border region overnight, Moscow said on Tuesday, just days after Washington gave the green light for Kyiv to use the long-range weapons against Russian targets.
The reported use of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, came as Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons, opening the door to a potential nuclear response by Moscow to even a conventional attack by any nation supported by a nuclear power.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had struck Russia’s Bryansk region with six missiles, and that air defence systems intercepted five and damaged one.
“This is, of course, a signal that they want to escalate,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a Group of 20 (G20) news conference in Brazil, said of the attack.
