Russia has vowed retaliation after claiming to have shot down eight US-made ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine on Saturday morning.

Moscow sees the use of such missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), as a major escalation.

The country’s air defenses shot down the eight ballistic missiles alongside 72 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. It added that “these actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.”

The statement said several drones were destroyed in the Leningrad region in the north-west and one in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer.

The outgoing US President Joe Biden approved Kyiv’s use of ATACMS in November – saying in part it was in response to Russia expanding the conflict by deploying North Korean troops.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond to Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS with Russia’s new nuclear-capable ballistic missile “Oreshnik.”

Last month, Putin suggested that it could be fired at the capital Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense systems.

The first and only launch of the experimental weapon targeted Ukraine’s Dnipro region on the morning of November 21.

The Ukrainian drone attacks forced temporary restrictions to be introduced at an airport in St. Petersburg, Russian state media agency TASS reported.

The governor of Leningrad oblast, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said in a statement on Telegram that the “night and morning of January 4 were record-breaking in terms of the number of UAVs destroyed,” with four shot down over his region.

A Ukrainian security official, Andrii Kovalenko, said a seaport in Leningrad was targeted, calling it an “instrument of economic and military survival for Russia in isolation.”

Meanwhile, Russia launched a total of 81 drones at Ukraine overnight on Friday into Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force Command, including Iranian-made Shahed drones and “various types of imitation drones.”

Some 34 Shahed attack UAVs and other types of drones were downed, according to a statement, although the downed drones caused damage in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.

Ukraine enters the year on the back foot in the conflict, which began with in February 2022, with Russian making gains on the eastern frontlines.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had taken control of the village of Nadiya in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. In Donetsk, the hub of Pokrovsk is under growing Russian pressure as Ukrainian forces lose ground to the south and east of the town.

Ukraine is also concerned that the incoming Trump administration could cut vital military aid; Trump himself has vowed to end the conflict.

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