The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy to discuss the attack on the Crimean Peninsula, which is occupied by Russia, by Ukraine.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday (June 24th) blaming both the United States and Ukraine for the attack, stating that Russia will retaliate.
Russian officials indicated that the ATACMS missile attack that occurred on Sunday in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, resulted in four fatalities, including two children, and over 150 injuries.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that their air defense system engaged and destroyed four missiles, with a fifth missile being hit and diverted off course before exploding in the city’s airspace.
Earlier this year, the United States began supplying ATACMS missiles to Kyiv.
Russian officials previously stated on April 30th that Ukraine had used the American-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to attack Crimea in an attempt to breach Russia’s air defense network in the annexed peninsula, with six missiles being shot down. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed their air defense forces downed 10 Ukrainian drones, six American-made ATACMS missiles, and two French “Hammer” guided aerial bombs. The Russian Defense Ministry did not specify the location where the six American-made ATACMS missiles were shot down.
An American official mentioned at the end of April that Washington had secretly delivered long-range missiles to Kyiv as part of a $300 million military aid package approved by President Biden on March 12th.
The issue of providing Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers has been a contentious topic for the Biden administration for the past few months, although medium-range ATACMS missiles were supplied to Ukraine in September last year.
According to a Reuters report in April, the long-range ATACMS missiles were first used in the early hours of April 17th, targeting a Russian airport in Crimea approximately 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the Ukrainian frontlines.
Initially, the Pentagon opposed deploying long-range missiles, expressing concerns that depleting missile inventories could impact US military readiness. Furthermore, there were fears that Ukraine might use these American-made missiles to target objectives within Russian territory, potentially escalating the conflict into a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.
In 2014, Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, holding an internationally unrecognized referendum on March 16th of that year to establish the new Crimean Republic and formally declare its separation from Ukraine to join the Russian Federation. However, the Ukrainian government, the United States, the European Union, and most countries do not recognize this referendum. On April 11th, Russia amended its constitution to include the Crimean region as a constituent part of the Russian Federation.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
(This article references reporting from “Bloomberg”).