Russia says it destroys five Ukraine-launched ATACMS missiles over Crimea
(Reuters) – The Russian defence ministry said on Thursday that its air defence forces destroyed five long-range missiles known as ATACMS that Ukraine’s military launched overnight at Crimea.
The ministry did not provide any evidence that Ukraine used the U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, that Washington said earlier this week were already reaching the Ukrainian forces.
The Russian defence ministry did not say in its statement on the Telegram messaging app whether there was any damage as a result of the attack.
The Russia-installed governor of the Crimean port of Sevastopol said that several residential houses and cars were damaged.
“No people were hurt,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor, said on his Telegram messaging channel.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine 10 years ago in a move broadly condemned by Kyiv’s Western allies.
Moscow has recently often said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine had started using the U.S-supplied ATACMS.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne)