Ukraine fires UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for first time, say reports

CNN
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Ukraine launched the British-French-made Storm Shadow missiles at targets inside Russia for the first time on Wednesday, according to a Russian military blog and Reuters, a day after Ukraine fired US-made ATACMS missiles into Russia.

Ukraine’s use of the UK-supplied missiles to hit Russian territory was confirmed to Reuters by an official on condition of anonymity. British media also reported the use of the cruise missile on Wednesday, citing sources.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov refused to confirm or deny the use of the UK-French-made missiles during a Wednesday news conference. Nor did a spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defense when asked by CNN. CNN has reached out to the French Ministry of Defense for comment.

When Umerov was asked if Ukraine used the Storm Shadow missiles to hit a target inside Russia, he replied, “we are using all the means to defend our country, so we’ll not go into detail. But we are just sending that we are capable and able to respond.”

Umerov added: “We’ll be defending and giving punches back… with all the means available.”

A Russian military blogger on Wednesday posted photos on Telegram of a Storm Shadow missile fragment, claiming that up to 12 of the missiles were fired on Russia’s Kursk region.

According to the Russian blog, the fragment was photographed in the Russian village of Marino, which is about 35 miles from the Ukrainian border. The fragment has engravings that say “Storm Shadow.”

The fragments in the photo were confirmed to be from a Storm Shadow missile by weapons expert Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US Army, who reviewed the image for CNN. However, CNN was unable to verify that the Telegram image was taken on Wednesday.

A separate video posted on Telegram, which was verified and geolocated by CNN, shows explosions audible from the Russian village of Marino on Wednesday. A weapons expert who reviewed the video for CNN said there are no indications the explosions are from a different type of munition, but it’s not possible to definitively say they are from Storm Shadow missiles.

The UK and France have previously supplied the longer-range Storm Shadow missiles for Ukraine to use inside its own borders. The missiles have a range of about 250 kilometers (155 miles), which is slightly shorter than the range of the American ATACMS (186 miles).

BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams wrote on Wednesday that “Ukraine has so far confined the use of Storm Shadow to the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops continue to hold ground.” He noted reports were still murky, and the target is not known “but Storm Shadow is powerful enough to penetrate bunkers, with extreme accuracy.”

The attack comes a day after two US officials told CNN that Ukraine fired US-made ATACMS missiles for the first time across the border to hit a Russian weapons arsenal on Tuesday. The Biden administration on Sunday had given Kyiv the green light to use the longer-range American weapons against targets inside Russia.

Ukraine used eight US missiles to successfully hit an ammunition depot deep inside Russia, according to two US defense officials.

The facility struck is in Bryansk, north of the Kursk region, where Ukraine continues to hold Russian territory sezied in a counteroffensive.

According to an initial assessment of the strike, the Ukrainian attack damaged the ammo depot, the officials said. One official added that the US had seen indications of secondary explosions, a common result of striking facilities housing large quantities of ammunition and weapons.

Russia fired two interceptors at the incoming missiles and may have intercepted a pair of the ATACMS, the officials said, but the attack was still successful in hitting its target.

The US assessment contradicts the Russia’s claim that the Ukrainian attack did not cause any casualties or damage.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that Ukraine had fired six ATACMS missiles at the facility in Bryansk, claiming five of the missiles were shot down and the sixth was damaged. The Ministry said fragments of the missiles fell on the territory of the military facility, causing a fire that was extinguished.

Ukraine has yet to confirm or deny the use of the longer-range US missiles. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine has long-range capabilities. Ukraine has long-range drones of its own production. We now have a long ‘Neptune’ (Ukrainian cruise missiles) and not just one. And now we have ATACMS. And we will use all of this.”