Russia Vows Retaliation After Intercepting Missiles, Drones Over Belgorod

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) during a military exercise, in Skede, Latvia, on Sept. 26, 2022. Gints Ivuskans/AFP via Getty Images

Russia has vowed to respond after Ukrainian forces launched a wave of drones and missiles at its western Belgorod region between Jan. 3 and Jan. 4.

In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that its air defense forces successfully shot down eight U.S.-made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) at Belgorod, and another 72 drones that the Ukrainian troops had launched toward Belgorod.

“These actions by the Kiev regime, supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliatory measures,” the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

In a subsequent statement, the Russian military stated that its S-400 SAM system and Pantsir-SM missile crews successfully prevented all of the ATACMS from hitting their targets.

The ATACMS missiles are among the longest-range weapons the United States has supplied to Ukrainian forces in their ongoing war with Russia. Ukrainian forces had initially used these tactical ballistic missiles within their pre-war borders, but President Joe Biden’s administration has gradually loosened restraints on when and where Ukrainian forces can use U.S.-supplied long-range weapons. Ukraine has increasingly used these missiles in recent weeks to strike targets within Russia’s borders.

After Ukrainian forces appeared to use ATACMS and Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike inside Russia’s borders in November, Russian forces launched what they claimed was a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile—dubbed Oreshnik—at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Russia’s military previously threatened specific retaliatory responses after suspected ATACMS strikes on a Russian airfield on Dec. 11, 2024. Russian forces subsequently announced strikes targeting a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system and facilities operated by the Luch Design Bureau, a Ukrainian arms-maker.

New Strikes Across Western Russia

The latest Ukrainian salvo targeting Belgorod occurred as the Biden administration has moved to transfer as much military and financial support to Ukraine as possible before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.

This week, Biden announced about $2.5 billion in new military assistance for Ukraine, while the Treasury Department announced that it had directed $3.4 billion in new budget support to Kyiv.

The Biden administration’s efforts to ramp up aid for Ukraine come amid uncertainty about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the geopolitical issue.

Even as Russian forces continue their grinding march west across Ukraine, Kyiv has devoted significant resources to take the fighting to Russian territory and to maintain the foothold they established in Russia’s Kursk border region in August.

In addition to blunting a wave of drones and missiles targeting Belgorod, the Russian military reported intercepting additional Ukrainian drones targeting its western Kursk, Voronezh, Pskov, and Leningrad regions on Jan. 4.

Ukrainian forces separately claimed a successful “high-precision strike” on a Russian military command center in the Kursk village of Maryino on Jan. 2. Ukraine’s military didn’t specify what weapons were used in the attack. Alexander Khinshtein, Kursk’s acting governor, claimed that Ukrainian missile strikes hit civilian residential areas in the nearby village of Ivanovskoye on the same day.

In his Time Magazine 2024 Person of the Year interview last month, Trump tied continued U.S. support for Ukraine to his overall plan to negotiate an end to the fighting. Asked whether he would abandon Ukraine, Trump said, “I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon.”

However, he registered his disapproval with the Biden administration’s move to allow Ukraine to escalate its attacks inside Russia.

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done,” Trump said.