Russia Vows To Retaliate After Massive Ukrainian Missile Strikes (Worthy News Focus)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Moscow warned Tuesday it would retaliate after Ukraine twice fired U.S.-made ATACMS missiles deep into Russia, contributing to the largest loss of Russian and North Korean supplied ammunition during the war.
Separately, Russia announced it was expelling a diplomat from Britain, which sources said supplied Ukraine with dozens more Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
The expelled diplomat, who Moscow accused of “espionage,” replaced one of six diplomats forced to leave in August on spying charges, said Russia’s foreign ministry, which summoned London’s ambassador.
Russia also confirmed it detained a British man captured fighting for Ukraine in Kyiv’s offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region. A court in the region ordered James Scott Rhys Anderson on Monday to be remanded in custody, saying he “participated in armed hostilities on the territory of the Kursk region.”
The East-West tensions resembling the height of the Cold War came as Moscow said Ukraine had used U.S. missiles to target air defense positions in Russia’s Kursk region over the last three days.
Russia claimed on both occasions that either one or two missiles reached their targets, while most were shot down.
Ukraine fired five of the U.S.-produced long-range missiles on Saturday, targeting an S-400 battalion near Lotarevka, northwest of Kursk, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. Two of the projectiles hit their targets, damaging a radar and resulting in casualties, according to the statement.
ATTACKING AIRFIELD
On Monday, Ukraine launched eight ATACMS missiles at the Kursk-Vostochny airfield, less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the regional capital. The ministry said air defenses shot down seven while one hit its target.
Footage monitored by the Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest showed flames and smoke billowing into the night sky over Kursk.
Multiple loud explosions were heard in Kursk as air defense systems were activated during a missile strike, with projectiles reportedly shot down over the Kurchatov, Kursk, Zheleznogorsk, and Lgov areas in the region.
Separate footage appeared to show the Kaluga oil refinery in flames after a series of drone strikes.
The Russian defense ministry said 34 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia, including Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod, and one over the Oryol region.
However, on Tuesday, the Kremlin made clear it would not back down, and the defense ministry claimed Russian forces captured the village of Kopanky in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
“In the last three days, the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] carried out two strikes at objects in the Kursk region by long-range Western-made weaponry,” the ministry said in remarks on the social media platform Telegram. “Retaliatory measures are being prepared.”
EXPERIMENTAL MISSILE
Last week, Moscow’s forces already launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile known as Oreshnik at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in retaliation for Kyiv’s first known use of western-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin later said his forces might use the new nuclear-capable missile in combat again.
He also lowered the threshold of Moscow using nuclear weapons, noting that Kyiv relies on Western military expertise on the ground to operate the Western missiles.
With military tensions rapidly escalating, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s words did little to end the saber rattling.
Stopping over in Athens, Greece, on his first regional tour of the eastern Mediterranean, he said it was vital that NATO members delivered the military aid to Ukraine promised at the alliance’s July summit in the United States.
Rutte underscored the need “to go further to change the trajectory of the conflict” in Ukraine.
“Our support for Ukraine has kept them in the fight, but we need to go further to change the trajectory of the conflict,” he added before holding a working lunch with the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
NATO DETERRENCE
“We need to provide critical air defenses and deliver on the commitments made at the Nato summit in Washington. The new command, the NATO command to coordinate security assistance and training Ukraine [NSATU], the financial pledge of 40 billion euros (42 billion) in 2024, and further measures to bring Ukraine closer to NATO,” Rutte stressed.
Referring to the importance of NATO’s “deterrence and defense,” Rutte said it was critical to boost investment and production in the arms industry “in an increasingly dangerous environment.”
He added: “In pursuing its illegal war in Ukraine, Russia makes use of North Korean weapons and troops, Iranian drones, and Chinese dual-use goods for its defense industry. This is a dangerous expansion of the war and a challenge to global peace and security …We need to defend every inch of our territory.”
His remarks underscored broader concerns that up to 100,000 North Korean troops may get involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv and other sources say at least some 11,000 North Korean forces are already participating in combat operations in Kursk, where Ukraine has captured territory in response to ongoing Russian gains.
It prompted the administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden to increase military support for Ukraine ahead of Donald J. Trump’s arrival in the White House on January 20.
Trump has pledged to end the war “within 24 hours,” but views are divided about whether Biden’s last-minute military steps could undermine or help the president-elect’s self-declared peace mission.
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