Foreign instructors helping Kiev’s forces operate missiles and drones were among the targets, Moscow has said
Russian forces have launched a series of retaliatory strikes in response to Ukraine using Western-supplied long-range weapons in its cross-border attacks, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The troops have struck the positions of ATACMS launchers and facilities hosting foreign instructors and mercenaries as part of their response, the ministry said on Telegram. The strikes came in response to Kiev using Western weapons to target internationally-recognized Russian territory last week.
Last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian military had fired British-made Storm Shadows and US-made ATACMS missiles at targets located in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions.
The attacks were mostly successfully repelled by Russian air defense systems, although a strike against a command center in Kursk Region resulted in some casualties among the military guarding the facility, according to the president.
In response, Russian forces destroyed a total of five missile launchers capable of firing US-made ATACMS missiles in one strike in Ukraine’s northern Sumy Region on November 25, the ministry said.
The “direct hit” by four Iskander missiles took out the US-donated equipment and at least 30 personnel, according to the statement. The Ukrainian equipment losses reportedly included three HIMARS missile launchers as well as two older MLRS systems. The ministry also published a video of the strike.
In a series of strikes launched on November 25 and 26, Moscow’s forces also destroyed two Ukrainian experimental Grom-2 ballistic missile launchers as well as an anti-ship Neptun missile system, the ministry said. The Iskander ballistic missile strike also targeted the facilities hosting the military specialists manning those systems, including foreign ones, it added.
Up to 40 fighters, mostly from the US, were eliminated in a missile strike on a command center used by the infamous Kraken Ukrainian nationalist unit in the city of Kharkov on November 25, according to the ministry.
An Iskander strike on a Ukrainian Special Forces command center in the city of Odessa eliminated more than 70 military personnel, including sea drone operators and at least nine French instructors and technical specialists, the ministry said.
On November 28, Russia also launched a massive combined strike targeting Ukrainian defense industry facilities and the energy infrastructure providing power to them. The attack involved some 90 missiles of various types as well as more than 100 drones and targeted 17 facilities in total, the ministry said.
