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In a significant escalation of the conflict, the Kremlin confirmed that Ukraine launched a daring attack on Saturday, utilizing five ATACMS missiles to strike S-400 missile positions in Lotarevka, a village in the Kursk region, resulting in a partial success with three missiles being destroyed and two hitting their intended target, according to a statement by the Russian defense ministry on Tuesday, which was reported by Ria Novosti here.
While Kyiv has officially acknowledged the S-400 attacks, it has refrained from disclosing the specific type of missiles employed, leaving room for speculation about the capabilities of Ukraine’s military arsenal.
In a detailed statement released on Monday, Kyiv’s General Staff revealed that the Ukrainian Army had carried out a precision strike on the positions of the anti-aircraft missile division 1490 of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region, successfully hitting the radar station of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, as posted on their official Facebook page.
The statement further alleged that the S-400 unit had been conducting combat operations in “ground-to-ground” mode, targeting stationary ground targets, including civilian objects and peaceful residents of settlements in the front-line regions of Ukraine, sparking concerns about the humanitarian impact of the conflict.
Although the General Staff declined to comment on the Kursk-Vostochnyi airfield strike, Ukrainian open-source intelligence community CyberBoroshno, which closely monitors Ukraine’s strikes in Russia, confirmed that at least two ATACMS cluster missiles had indeed hit the airfield, as reported on their Telegram channel here.
The White House has corroborated Ukraine’s use of ATACMS, with National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby stating that the Ukrainians have been utilizing these missiles to defend themselves on an “immediate-need basis” in and around Kursk, during a press briefing on Monday, which can be accessed on the White House website here.
