Democracy Dies in Darkness

Ukraine fires U.S.-made ATACMS missiles into Russia for first time

The strike in Bryansk marks an intensification of the conflict amid broader uncertainty ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

7 min
An ATACMS missile launches during a test in July 2002 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. (Ellis Neel/AP)
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KYIV — Ukraine fired American-made ATACMS missiles deep into Russia for the first time on Tuesday, U.S., Ukrainian and Russian officials said, marking an intensification of the war just months before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office heralds a potential major shift in course.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that five out of the six missiles, fired at a target in the country’s Bryansk region, were shot down and that the sixth was damaged, dismissing the attack as largely ineffective. But Ukrainian officials said the strike caused a conflagration at a weapons depot in the city of Karachev, just over 70 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border — and about 250 miles south of the Kremlin.