For the first time Ukraine has fired a US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) which “destroyed targets” inside Russia.
Ukrainian forces fired the HIMARS which is thought to have hit a Russian S-300 of a S-400 air defence system which also sent a field ablaze in Belgorod city, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed.
Vladimir Putin has issued a threat warning the West and Ukraine this will “fatal consequences.”
Russian military blogger Evgeniy Poddubny said, “The enemy [Ukraine] has begun using Western-made weapon systems to attack ‘old’ Russian territory.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned, “I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences.
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“For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive.”
According to the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), “Geolocated imagery published on June 3 shows two destroyed launchers and a damaged command post of a Russian S-300/400 air defence system in a field east of Kiselyovo (just north of Belgorod City).”
“Russian sources will likely continue to characterize any successful strike in Belgorod Oblast as a HIMARS strike regardless of the system used,” the analysts added on Tuesday.
Yaroslav Trofimov, Ukrainian author and journalist wrote on X, “Long-delayed US permission to use HIMARS GMLRS to strike across the Russian border starts to bring results.
“Here is footage of an S-300/S-400 missile system that Russia also uses in surface-to-surface mode to pummel Kharkiv. Location said to be in Belgorod region.”
On Friday the Kremlin said they have had “enough” and they are now “ready to use tactical nuclear weapons” inside Ukraine.
A senior Russian official has said that US weapons which are being used inside Russia means there could now be a war with NATO and the United States, stressing Moscow is “not bluffing.”
The US President Joe Biden has made a significant decision lowering restrictions of the use of American weapons to be used against Russia.
Biden has given Ukraine permission to use US weaponry to strike military targets inside Russia, but this is limited to defend Kharkiv.
Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned that “no one can rule out” conflict with the West will escalate to the “last stage.”
He said that any long-range weapon being used inside the Russian Federation by Ukraine will be deemed to be controlled by NATO.
Medvedev said, “This is no military assistance, this is participation in a war against us,” he said.
“And such actions could well become a casus belli [an act that provokes a war].”
“All their military equipment and specialists fighting against us will be destroyed both on the territory of former Ukraine and on the territory of other countries, should strikes be carried out from there against Russian territory,” Medvedev warned.
