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The official said Ukraine destroyed missile launchers in Russia’s Belgorod region, a U. S. -made rocket system.
By Maria Varenikova, Constant Méheut and Aric Toler
Just days after Biden’s leadership allowed Ukraine to fire U. S. weapons at Russia, Kyiv used its newfound latitude to attack a military facility across the border with a U. S. -made artillery system, according to a member of Ukraine’s parliament.
Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces destroyed Russian missile launchers in an attack in the Belgorod region, about 20 miles away in Russia. Ukrainian forces used a high-mobility artillery rocket system. , or HIMARS, he explained.
It is the first time a Ukrainian official has publicly stated that Ukraine had used U. S. weapons to fire on Russia since President Biden lifted the ban on such attacks. For months, the ban was a red line that Biden’s leadership would not cross for fear of emerging tensions with a nuclear-armed country.
The Ukrainian military did not respond to a request for comment.
In granting the authorization last week, the United States imposed limits, saying the weapons can only be used on Russian territory near northeastern Ukraine and for defensive purposes. Chernev, in text messages, said Ukraine had destroyed the S-300 and S-400 missile systems, without specifying how many. Russia used these systems, intended primarily to shoot down aircraft, to bomb the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, located just 72 kilometers from Belgorod.
The HIMARS used through Ukraine is a American-made long rocket system, capable of firing beyond the maximum of Ukraine’s non-Western weapons.
It is possible that the account of the attack provided through M. Chernev cannot be independently confirmed. But videos of the aftermath of the attack on the S-300 and S-400 systems were released on Monday. Satellite imagery and social media posts suggest that measures were taken on Russian territory over the weekend.
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