Ukraine's missile strike on Russian airbase escalates tensions
For the first time, Ukrainian forces have attacked a Russian military airport with ATACMS ballistic missiles equipped with cluster warheads. The USA, which provided these weapons to Kyiv, has confirmed that it permitted the use of the missiles, which the Ukrainians are deploying in the Kursk region.
"The White House has confirmed for the first time that it granted Ukraine permission to use ATACMS missiles, which the Ukrainians are employing in the Kursk region," reported Marek Wałkuski, a correspondent for Polish Radio in Washington, via social media on Monday evening.
"We changed the guidelines and allowed them to use these to attack certain targets," said John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council spokesperson, in response to a Polish journalist's question.
A group of Ukrainian OSINT-Cyberboroshno analysts determined that on Monday night (25th November), Ukrainian forces conducted an attack on a Russian military airport in the Kursk region using American ATACMS ballistic missiles with cluster warheads for the first time. The group published photos and videos showing the moment two M39 missiles struck the Chalino base.
Russian officials confirmed that eight missiles were launched, of which seven were intercepted. However, they did not provide details about the presence of aircraft during the attack, the locations of the missile interceptions, or their type.
