Moscow Vows Response After US-made Missiles Allegedly Hit Russian Airfield

A Russian tank fires toward Ukrainian positions on Nov. 22, 2024. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

Moscow will respond to an alleged Ukrainian missile attack on a military airfield in southern Russia, a Kremlin spokesman said on Dec. 12.

The U.S.-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) was used to carry out the attack, which injured Russian personnel, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.

“The response will follow in a manner deemed appropriate,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “But it will definitely follow.”

On Dec. 11, Moscow said that Ukrainian forces had fired six ATACMS missiles at a military airfield located near the city of Taganrog in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region.

“This attack by Western long-range weapons won’t be left unanswered,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement cited by Russian state news agency TASS. “Corresponding measures will be taken.”

According to the ministry, two missiles were downed by a Russian Pantsir air-defense system, while the rest were deflected by electronic warfare systems.

It said that falling missile debris had caused injuries among Russian personnel at the airfield, along with damage to buildings and vehicles.

“Minor damage (shrapnel damage) was caused to two buildings on the airfield’s technical premises, three military motor vehicles, and civilian cars in a parking lot adjacent to the airfield,” the defense ministry stated.

Speaking on Dec. 12, Peskov referred to the ministry’s “absolutely unambiguous” statement, in which, he said, “it was clearly stated that a response would follow.”

As of publication time, Kyiv has yet to issue a statement regarding the alleged missile strike—which The Epoch Times could not independently verify—or the Kremlin’s pledge to retaliate.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense for comment regarding the alleged Ukrainian missile attack.

Taganrog sits on the shore of the Sea of Azov, not far from eastern Ukraine, large swaths of which Russia invaded—and effectively annexed—in 2022.

Hypersonic Response

The last time Ukraine used advanced Western missile systems to strike targets in Russia was on Nov. 21, when it fired a combination of U.S.-made HIMARS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia’s western Kursk region.

According to Russian officials, the attack resulted in deaths and injuries among Russian military personnel.

Two days earlier, on Nov. 19, Ukrainian forces launched half a dozen ATACMS missiles at Russia’s neighboring region of Bryansk.

Firefighters work at the site of a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Nov. 21, 2024. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region/Reuters

The attacks came shortly after the Biden administration granted Kyiv permission—in a policy shift—to use Western-supplied missile systems to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Hours after the Nov. 21 strike, Russia fired a hypersonic ballistic missile—dubbed “Oreshnik”—that struck a defense-industrial facility near Ukraine’s central-eastern city of Dnipro.

The extent of the damage caused by the strike, which was later confirmed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials, remains unclear.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Nov. 21 statement that the hypersonic missile strike was a response to “attacks by Western long-range weapons” against its territory.

He said Kyiv’s use of Western missile systems to strike targets inside Russia meant the ongoing conflict in Ukraine had assumed “elements of a global nature.”

He also said Kyiv’s use of the missile systems was “not possible without the direct involvement of military experts from the manufacturing nations.”

Responding to Putin’s remarks, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said the United States was “going to take seriously the rhetoric coming out of Russia.”

“But our focus remains on arming Ukraine and supporting Ukraine [with] what it needs the most on the battlefield,” she said at the time.

At a Dec. 11 press briefing, Singh said that Russia could fire a second Oreshnik hypersonic missile in the coming days.

“They’re trying to use every weapon that they have in their arsenal to intimidate Ukraine,” she told reporters. “But of course, Ukraine, with the United States, other partners around the world, continues to have our support as they fight every single day on the battlefield.”

Reuters contributed to this report.