Russia has vowed retaliation after claiming to have shot down eightUS-made ATACMS missilesfired by Ukraine on Saturday morning.Moscow sees the use of such missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), as a major escalation, CNN reported.The countrys air defenses shot down the eight ballistic missiles alongside 72 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russias Ministry of Defense said.
It added that these actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.The statement said several drones were destroyed in the Leningrad region in the north-west and one in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer.Theoutgoing US President Joe Bidenapproved Kyivs use of ATACMS in November saying in part it was in response to Russia expanding the conflict by deploying North Korean troops.Russian President Vladimir Putinhas threatened to respond to Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS with Russias new nuclear-capable ballistic missile Oreshnik.Last month, Putin suggested that it could be fired at the capital Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense systems.The first and only launch of the experimental weapon targeted Ukraines Dnipro region on the morning of November 21.The Ukrainian drone attacks forced temporary restrictions to be introduced at an airport in St.
Petersburg, Russian state media agency TASS reported.The governor of Leningrad oblast, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said in a statement on Telegram that the night and morning of January 4 were record-breaking in terms of the number of UAVs destroyed, with four shot down over his region.A Ukrainian security official, Andrii Kovalenko, said a seaport in Leningrad was targeted, calling it an instrument of economic and military survival for Russia in isolation.