Ukraine Launches Biggest Air Strike on Russia Using US, UK-Supplied Missiles

Russia accuses Ukraine of using US- and UK-supplied missiles for one of the strikes and promises it would "not go unanswered".

Tue Jan 14 2025
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KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine carried out its largest aerial attack on Russian territory of the nearly three-year war overnight, Kyiv said on Tuesday, hitting factories and energy hubs hundreds of miles from the frontline.

The Russian military accused Kyiv of using US- and British-supplied missiles for one of the strikes and promised it would “not go unanswered”.

The barrage forced schools in the southwestern Saratov region to close, while at least nine airports in central and western Russia temporarily halted traffic, according to Russian officials.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down six US-supplied ATACMS missiles and six British Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Ukraine had fired in the attack on the Bryansk region.

Moscow and Kyiv have increased strikes on each other ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, as both sides seek to gain the upper hand in potential negotiations aimed at settling the nearly three-year war.

“The Ukrainian Defence Forces carried out the most massive strike against the Russian military facilities, at a distance of 200 to 1,100 kilometres (125 to 700 miles) deep into the territory of the Russian Federation,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a post on social media.

Facilities “in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula regions and the Republic of Tatarstan were hit,” it added.

Among the targets were a chemical factory, an oil depot near a Russian air base and an oil refinery.

The governor of Russia’s Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said the scale of the attack there was “massive”.

Schools in the cities of Saratov and Engels were holding classes online on Tuesday because of the attacks, he added.

Firefighters had only the day before managed to put out a blaze at an oil depot in the city of Engels, which was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike on January 8.

Kyiv’s army said it had hit the same site again.

Ukrainian strikes target energy facilities

In the energy-rich region of Tatarstan, a Ukrainian drone struck a gas storage tank, sending flames and thick smoke billowing into the sky near the city of Kazan, according to media and the regional government.

Tatar local media said a liquefied gas storage base was hit, and published images showing flames and black smoke.

Ukraine’s army had earlier claimed it had hit a chemical plant near the town of Seltso, more than 100 kilometres from the border.

Ukraine regularly targets energy sites in Russia, part of what it calls “fair” retaliation for Russia’s repeated barrages of its energy grid since February 2022.

Russian advances

The overnight Ukrainian attacks came at a tough time for Kyiv’s forces along the front line, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region.

Moscow announced on Tuesday that it had re-captured two Ukrainian villages in the eastern Donetsk region — Neskuchne and Terny — that Kyiv had wrested back from Russian control earlier in the conflict.

The Russian defence ministry said the area around Neskuchne was a strategically important logistics hub for Ukraine.

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