Moscow
\nRussian air defenses have shot down four US-manufactured long-range missiles over Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.
\nOn Saturday night, Kiev\u2019s forces attempted \u201cto carry out a terrorist attack\u201d against the Russian peninsula using surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) supplied by Washington, the ministry said in a post on Telegram. The strike was intercepted, it added.
\nOn Tuesday, the Defense Ministry claimed that six ATACMS projectiles had been downed in a single day, without specifying the location of the strikes. In total, 15 such missiles have been intercepted in the past seven days, Moscow reported on Saturday.
\nIn late April, US officials confirmed earlier media reports that the Pentagon had secretly shipped an unspecified number of long-range missiles to Ukraine as part of an arms package announced by President Joe Biden in mid-March.
\nThe \u201cgoal\u201d of supplying Kiev with ATACMS was to put more pressure on Crimea and allow Ukrainian forces to target the peninsula \u201cmore effectively,\u201d the New York Times reported at a time, citing an unnamed Pentagon official.
\nMoscow said the provision of long-range missiles would only spell \u201cmore problems\u201d for Kiev. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that the use of ATACMS would not impact the outcome of the conflict, or prevent Russia from achieving its security goals.
\nOn Friday, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that any Western-backed Ukrainian attack against the Russian peninsula, or the Crimean Bridge which connects it to the Krasnodar Region, would spark a forceful response.
\n\u201cI would like to again warn Washington, London, Brussels, that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to failure, but will also be met with a retaliatory blow,\u201d she said during a media briefing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow Russian air defenses have shot down four US-manufactured long-range missiles over Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. On Saturday night, Kiev\u2019s forces attempted \u201cto carry out a terrorist attack\u201d against the Russian peninsula using surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) supplied by Washington, the ministry said in a post on Telegram. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-404744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n