Ukraine Attacks Russia with US ATACMS
Russia: "Ukraine Armed with US Support, a Deadly Crime"
Russia strongly protested on the 24th (local time) by summoning the U.S. ambassador to Russia after the Ukrainian military attacked the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia is occupying, with U.S.-made ATACMS missiles.
According to TASS and other sources, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it summoned U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on the morning of the same day.
The Ministry of Defense explained, "There were numerous civilian casualties, including children, in Sevastopol," and "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested to the U.S. ambassador regarding the deadly crimes committed by the Ukrainian regime armed with U.S. support."
The day before, Russia announced that the Ukrainian military fired five ATACMS missiles at Sevastopol, and Russia's air defense system shot down four of them, but one remaining missile exploded in the air with a cluster munition warhead.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, mayor of Sevastopol, stated that the attack resulted in four deaths, including two children, and 153 injuries in total.
ATACMS is a long-range weapon with a range of 300 km. Since the start of the war with Russia, Ukraine has continuously requested and received this weapon from the United States.
The weapons provided by the U.S. are known to be cluster munitions, where a parent bomb disperses hundreds of submunitions over the ground to conduct a wide-area attack. Cluster munitions are considered inhumane weapons.
Russia is reacting sensitively to Ukraine attacking its territory using U.S.-made weapons.
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, warned reporters, "If the U.S. intervenes in the fight and peaceful Russians end up dying, there will inevitably be consequences," adding, "Time will tell."
Earlier, on the 5th, President Putin stated at a press conference with representatives of major global news agencies held in Saint Petersburg that if Ukraine strikes deeper into Russian territory, Russia may deploy conventional missiles within the strike range of the U.S. and its European allies.
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