Ukraine fires British-French Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for first time, reports say

CNN
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Ukraine fired 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 on the use of the cruise missile on Wednesday, citing sources.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov refused to confirm or deny the use of the British-French-made missiles during a Wednesday press conference. Neither did a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense when asked by CNN. CNN has reached out to the French Ministry of Defense for comment.

When asked if Ukraine used the Storm Shadow missiles to hit a target inside Russia, Umerov replied: “We use all the means to defend our country, so we will not go into details. But we just send that we are capable and able to respond.”

Umerov added: “We will defend and strike back … by all available means.”

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

According to the Russian blog, the fragment was photographed in the Russian village of Marino, which is located 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 photo for CNN. However, CNN was unable to confirm that the Telegram photo was taken on Wednesday.

A separate video posted on Telegram, which was verified and geolocated by CNN, shows explosions that could be heard 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 another type of munition, but it is not possible to definitively say they are from Storm Shadow missiles.

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

BBC Diplomatic Correspondent wrote Paul Adams on Wednesday that “Ukraine has so far limited the use of Storm Shadow to the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops continue to hold ground.” He noted that reports were still unclear and the target is not known, “but the 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 across the border for the first time to hit a Russian weapons arsenal on Tuesday. The Biden administration had on Sunday given Kiev the green light to use the longer-range US 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 that was hit is in Bryansk, north of the Kursk region, where Ukraine continues to hold Russian territory seized in a counter-offensive.

According to an initial assessment of the strike, the Ukrainian strike damaged the ammunition depot, the officials said. One official added that the US had seen signs of secondary explosions, a common result of attacks on facilities that house large amounts of ammunition and weapons.

Russia fired two interceptors at the incoming missiles and may have intercepted a pair of ATACMS, the officials said, but the strike still managed to hit its target.

The US assessment contradicts Russia’s claim that the Ukrainian attack caused no casualties or damage.

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

Ukraine has not yet confirmed or denied the use of the longer-range US missiles. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine has long range. 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 this.”