Russia vows retaliation after claiming Ukraine fired US-supplied missiles | News about the Russia-Ukraine war

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has authorized Kiev to use long-range weapons against Russia.

Russia has vowed retaliation after it claimed it shot down eight US-supplied ATACMS missiles that Ukraine fired at its border region of Belgorod.

“On January 3, an attempt was made from Ukrainian territory to launch a missile attack on the Belgorod region using US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

“These actions by the Kiev regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliatory measures,” it continued, saying all the rockets had been shot down.

The ministry had previously said that air defenses had shot down a total of eight ATACMS missiles, although it did not say when or where.

Officials in Ukraine have not yet responded to the accusation.

The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) has a range of 300 km (190 miles) and was first developed in the 1980s.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden last year authorized Kiev to use long-range weapons against Russia, a move the Kremlin denounced as a serious escalation of the nearly three-year conflict. Biden is expected to announce additional security assistance to Ukraine in the coming days, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview last month that he was “very vehemently” opposed to Ukraine’s use of weapons, saying they would “escalate” the conflict.

According to the French magazine Avions Legendaires, in addition to US military support, Kiev is also set to receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multi-role combat aircraft this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last year threatened to attack central Kiev with a hypersonic missile if Ukraine continued to strike Russian territory with long-range Western weapons.

Both Kiev and Moscow have been accusing each other of deadly attacks on civilians since the beginning of the year.

A Russian attack on a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed a 74-year-old man on Saturday, the region’s governor, Oleg Synegubov, said.

At least three people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, according to local authorities. Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region and has been under regular fire from Russian forces for months.

Russian forces also launched attacks near the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in an attempt to bypass it from the south and cut off supply routes for Ukrainian troops, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that Russia fired 300 attack drones and 20 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the first three days of 2025, but said a large portion of them were shot down by Kiev’s forces.

“This Russian terror, which continues with unrelenting intensity, requires us and all our partners not to reduce our efforts to strengthen our air defense shield and all its systemic components – from Patriot systems to mobile fire groups,” Zelensky said its social media platforms.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin his final official trip this weekend, traveling to South Korea, Japan and France.

At meetings in Paris, he is expected to discuss European security and Russia’s war in Ukraine with French officials, presenting the Biden administration’s final move toward Kyiv before the Trump administration takes power.