Ukraine fires US-made missile into Russia: WW3 fears as Kremlin threatens ‘nuclear response’ if long-range Western weapons are used on its territory

Volodymyr Zelensky‘s forces marked the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine by carrying out their first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles early this morning, Ukrainian military officials declared.

A fiery explosion lit up the night sky around 77 miles from the nearest Ukrainian border at an ammunition store in Karachev, in Russia‘s Bryansk region. 

Eyewitnesses and Russian military bloggers reported that the ammo dump was targeted by missiles, with Ukrainian military officials later confirming to RBC Ukraine that the attack was indeed conducted with ATACMS. 

Reports of the strike emerged within minutes of the Kremlin threatening a ‘nuclear response’ should Ukraine attack targets on Russian soil with Western-supplied long-range munitions.

‘The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression with the use of conventional weapons against it,’ Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Russia this morning according to the TASS news service.

His statement followed Putin‘s approval of an updated nuclear doctrine that would allow his strategic missile forces to deploy nuclear weapons if Russian territory is threatened by a non-nuclear nation supported by a nuclear power.

Threats that would make Russia’s leadership consider a nuclear strike include an attack with conventional missiles, drones or other aircraft, according to the doctrine.

A Ukrainian strike on Russian territory with US-supplied missiles would meet these criteria, raising fears that Moscow may now consider a dramatic escalation in the conflict following this morning’s attack in Bryansk. 

Zelensky has long pressed his Western allies to allow his country to strike military targets deeper inside Russia, saying the restriction had made it impossible for Kyiv to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids. 

But Kyiv’s Western backers had resisted his pleas amid fears that doing so would cross a ‘red line’ set by Putin – until this past weekend when the Biden administration sensationally lifted the blanket ban. 

In September the Russian President said that he would consider Western nations ‘direct participants’ in the war in Ukraine if they were to provide Kyiv with the ability to strike targets inside Russia.

He has also suggested he may provide Russian missiles to Western adversaries to strike Western targets abroad as a course of retaliation. 

Now, as fears grow over the potential fallout of Western missiles striking targets in Russia, NATO is holding its largest-ever artillery exercise just 70 miles from the border where the British Army is testing what military chiefs have described as a ‘game-changing’ weapon.

Finland, which joined the military alliance last year, is hosting up to 3,600 soldiers from 28 nations for the exercise, known as Dynamic Front. 

Live fire drills began on Sunday in the northern Lapland region, and are part of a series of exercises, with further ones planned in Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland.

The British Army is using the opportunity to put its Archer 155-mm guns to the test, weapons which can release high explosive shells or GPS-guided munitions and hit targets 30 miles away.

The guns have been labelled a battlefield game-changer by British troops, with Major Barney Ingram telling the i newspaper that ‘you can, realistically, with this capability, neutralise most targets’.

Putin’s tightly controlled state TV has also made open threats of a nuclear attack on Britain and the US in the wake of the Biden administration’s decision to permit Ukraine to use long-distance missiles to target Russian territory.

The Kremlin chief’s propagandists expressed fury at Biden for giving Ukraine the green light to strike targets inside Russia with the coveted ATACMS system that has a range of up to 190 miles.

Moscow also sees it as highly likely that Britain and France will mirror the decision by granting Ukraine permission to use their Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles, though this is yet to be confirmed.

The Russians claim that a strike with Western weapons on Russian soil crosses a line laid down by Putin and directly implicates the West in the war, arguing that Ukraine cannot target these sophisticated missiles to strike Russia without US, British or French assistance.

Andrey Gurulev, reservist Russian army general, hardline MP, and pro-Putin TV propagandist, warned of a full-scale nuclear strike on Britain to show the dictator’s intent.

‘There are individual targets that can be hit with….demonstrative warning strikes,’ he said. ‘The first candidate to get a nuclear bludgeon….is the UK.’

Embarking on a rant on live television, Gurulev said the West was scared of Putin’s hypersonic nuclear arsenal.

‘I assure you that there will be no backlash [against Russia],’ he said.

‘Our arsenal in Russia, 100% deters either Biden or Trump from using nuclear weapons against Russia.’

He also declared that ‘if anyone has the urge to launch ATACMS, SCALP, Storm Shadow missiles… there will be essentially nothing left of America trying to pull us into escalation.

‘There will be no Biden and no Trump. The American people and we know this perfectly well.’

Meanwhile, in a UN security council debate marking the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine, Putin’s permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said the use of Western missiles in Russia amounted to ‘suicidal strikes’.

He also urged a rethink from Britain and France.

‘Regardless of the militaristic fervour of the Democratic administration, which, having lost the presidential election with a bang… is giving suicidal permits to Zelensky’s regime to use long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.

‘Perhaps Joe Biden himself, for many reasons, has nothing to lose,’ he said.

‘But the short-sightedness of the British and French leadership, which are rushing to play along with the outgoing administration and dragging not only their countries but the whole of Europe into a full-scale escalation with extremely serious consequences, is striking.

‘This is exactly what our former Western partners should think about before it is too late.’

Putin has long warned that Moscow would consider Ukraine’s Western allies directly party to the conflict if their weapons are used by Kyiv’s troops to strike targets on Russian soil, setting out a series of red lines that Western leaders appear reluctant to test. 

In June, he issued a thinly veiled threat saying he would consider providing Western foes with Russian missiles to strike the West’s assets if the US or European nations went ahead with allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles.

‘If someone is thinking it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why can’t we supply our weapons of the same class to those regions around the world where they will target sensitive facilities of the countries that are doing this to Russia?’ he said. 

Though it seems the US has finally budged on letting Ukraine use its long-range missiles on specific targets in Russia, it remains to be seen whether the rest of Kyiv’s Western partners will follow suit.  

Downing Street is yet to issue a response to Biden’s decision, which has not been officially announced but has been widely reported in the US.

But Sir Keir Starmer said ‘we need to double down’ on support for Ukraine and the issue was ‘top’ of his agenda at this week’s G20 summit of world leaders in Brazil.

Unconfirmed reports from Le Figaro indicated both London and Paris were considering their position after months of having refused Zelensky’s pleas to use the fearsome munitions on Russian targets.

The fireball explosion in Karachev in Russia’s Bryansk region early this morning comes just days after the US gave Kyiv the green light to use ATACMS rockets.

Munitions supplied by North Korea are believed to have been the target.

The same ammunition store was hit in a drone strike last month, but the latest attack caused significantly more damage.

While Ukraine does have domestically made missiles, its usual strikes on Russian territory until now have been by drones rather than Western-supplied missiles.

Russian officials said a dozen drones had also been downed over Bryansk overnight.

Telegram channel Exilenova said: ‘The 67th arsenal of the [Russian armed forces] was attacked in Karachev at night.

‘This time it was a missile.’

A Russian channel with links to law enforcement – VChK-OGPU – reported: ‘A missile alert was declared in the Bryansk region, after which a very powerful explosion occurred in Karachev, according to eyewitnesses.

‘Now residents see a fiery glow and hear less powerful explosions. A large weapons arsenal is located in this place.’

The decision to green light the use of ATACMS on Russian targets comes as Ukrainian defences wilt under incessant pressure from Moscow’s troops.

As if to prove its enduring military capabilities, Ukraine shocked Moscow in August by piercing its border with tens of thousands of troops that Russia is still fighting to repel. 

Zelensky said the operation made a mockery of Putin’s ‘red lines’ and used the move as yet more evidence to lobby the US and European lawmakers to grant Kyiv permission to use advanced Western weapons inside Russia.

But after making rapid progress in the first two weeks of the incursion, Ukrainian advances in Kursk stalled and Kyiv’s troops have since been desperately trying to hold their position.

Meanwhile in Eastern Ukraine, Russia’s forces are steadily grinding towards the logistics hub of Pokrovsk having taken large swathes of territory in the Donetsk region in recent months.

Putin‘s army took 185 square miles of Ukrainian territory in October, a record since the first weeks of the conflict in March 2022, according to an analysis of data provided by the real-time conflict tracker from the Institute for the Study of War.

Now, with Trump set to return to the White House in a matter of weeks, the intensity of the conflict is likely to increase.

Trump has famously said that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have started had he been president and claimed he could bring the conflict to an abrupt halt – without ever revealing his plans for doing so. 

There are mounting concerns that Trump could push for a hasty ceasefire requiring Ukraine to cede significant portions of its territory – a prospect that leaves both sides fighting to capture as much land as possible so as to strengthen their position ahead of negotiations. 

Biden’s decision to grant Ukraine the use of ATACMS in Russia could therefore be seen as an additional buttress that aims to help Kyiv’s troops maintain their foothold in Kursk to present it as a bargaining chip.