The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday its air defence forces shot down four US-produced long-range missiles over the Crimea peninsular, weapons known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that Washington has shipped to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The ministry said later that Russian aircraft and air defence systems had downed a total of 15 ATACMS in the past week.
On Tuesday, Russian officials said Ukraine had attacked Crimea with ATACMS in an attempt to pierce Russian air defences of the annexed peninsula but that six had been shot down.
A US official said in Washington last month that the United States secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The ATACMS missiles, with a range up to 300km were used for the first time in the early hours of April 17th, launched against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about 165km from the Ukrainian front lines, the official said.
The Pentagon initially opposed the long-range missile deployment, concerned that taking the missiles from the American stockpile would hurt US military readiness.
There were also concerns that Ukraine would use them to attack targets deep inside Russia, a step which could lead to an escalation of the war towards a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.
Separately on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said that in the last week its forces had destroyed a military train carrying equipment and arms produced in the West and supplied to Ukraine by Nato.
The scale of the damage, exact date and location were not disclosed.
Reuters is not immediately able to corroborate battlefield accounts from either side.
Also on Saturday, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry said that Nato’s,four-month long military exercises near Russia’s borders, known as Steadfast Defender, are proof the alliance is preparing for a potential conflict with Russia.
The spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, dismissed accusations by Nato this week that Russia is engaged in hybrid attacks on its member states, saying this was misleading “misinformation” aimed at distracting people from the alliance’s activities.
It was Nato that had waged a hybrid war with Russia by supporting Ukraine with arms, intelligence and finances, she said in a statement.
“Right now, Nato’s largest exercise since the cold war, Steadfast Defender, is taking place near Russia’s borders. According to their scenario, coalition’s actions against Russia are being practised using all the instruments, including hybrid and conventional weapons,” she said in a statement.
“We have to admit that Nato is seriously preparing for a ‘potential conflict’ with us.”
Relations between Russia and the West have been at their most hostile in decades following the start of Russia’s military conflict in Ukraine in 2022.
Announcing the start of the drills in January, Nato said 90,000 troops would take part, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up. The drills are set to run through May.
Russia said at the time the drills marked an “irrevocable return” of the alliance to cold war schemes.
Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry’s database.
The entry it cited gave no further details.
Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian police in February put Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.
Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges. - Reuters
– Reuters
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