Outgoing US President Joe Biden authorised Kyiv to use the long-range weapons against Russia last year, in a move Moscow denounced as a grave escalation of the nearly three-year conflict.
"On January 3, an attempt was made from Ukrainian territory to launch a missile strike against the Belgorod region using US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles," the Russian defence ministry said.
"These actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation," it added, saying all the missiles were shot down.
Kyiv's use of the missile systems has infuriated the Kremlin, which has threatened to hit central Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to the strikes.
ATACMS missiles have a maximum range of 300 kilometres (190 miles), according to publicly available data.
US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview published last month he was "very vehemently" opposed to Ukraine using the arms, which he said were "escalating" the conflict.
- Journalist killed -
In Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian "kamikaze" drone killed a reporter from Russia's Izvestia newspaper as he was travelling on a highway between two Russian-held cities, the paper said.
Alexander Martemyanov, who worked freelance for the paper, was returning from covering shelling in the Russian-held city of Gorlivka with colleagues when their car was hit, Russia's state RIA news agency said.
A journalist from RIA and four other media workers were wounded in the attack, the agency added.
Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of fatal attacks on civilians since the year began.
A Russian strike on a village in Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region earlier on Saturday killed a 74-year-old man, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.
Moscow also struck a town in Ukraine's northern Sumy region, destroying part of an apartment building and wounding seven including a two-year-old girl, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, a 10-year-old boy was killed and his parents injured when a drone hit their car, the region's Moscow-installed head Yevgeny Balitsky said.
Russia's defence ministry meanwhile said on Saturday it had captured the Ukrainian village of Nadiia, one of the few settlements in the eastern Lugansk region still under Kyiv's control.
Moscow advanced by almost 4,000 square kilometres (1,540 square miles) in Ukraine in 2024, according to an AFP analysis, as Kyiv's army struggled with chronic manpower shortages and exhaustion.
Russia threatens 'retaliation' after Ukraine attack using U.S.-supplied missiles
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 4, 2024 -
The Kremlin on Saturday vowed "retaliation" for what it said was Ukraine's use of American-made Army Tactical Missile Systems against targets in a Russian border region.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said a Ukrainian attack using the U.S.-supplied long-range tactical missiles came on Friday in the Belgorad Oblast, located about 25 miles north of the border with Ukraine.
"During the anti-missile battle, all ATACMS missiles were shot down by combat crews of the S-400 air defense missile system and the Pantsir-SM air defense missile and gun system," the Russian military said on its Telegram channel.
"These actions by the Kyiv regime, supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliatory measures," it added.
That post followed an earlier one from the Russian MOD saying eight ATACMS had been shot down without specifying their origin.
The Belgorod region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote on Telegram that air defense systems were activated in the Prokhorovsky district late Friday and that "several air targets were shot down."
A man was injured In the village of Prelestnoye during the attack while infrastructure in the region was also damaged, he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Ukrainian forces to use the controversial ATACMS missiles against targets inside Russia in November, and since then Russia has promised several times to retaliate against the use.
Days after Biden's authorization, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he had approved the use of an experimental Oreshnik hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian aerospace plant, claiming it was in response to Kyiv's firing of U.S.- and British-made long-range weapons.
On Dec. 12, Russia similarly threatened a unspecified response after Ukraine struck the Taganrog military airfield in the Sea of Azov with six American-made ATACMS ballistic missiles.
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