The Russian military said on Wednesday that its air defense forces shot down two US-made ATACMS long-range missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian targets, in what state media said was the first such success, Reuters writes.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported the interception in one of its regular messages about the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.”

He did not provide more details. Reuters could not independently verify Moscow’s statement, and there was no comment from Kyiv or Washington.

Last week, Ukraine said it had used US-supplied ATACMS missiles for the first time, causing significant damage to two airfields that host Russian helicopters and other equipment.

ATACMS are designed for “deep attack of level two enemy forces,” according to a US military website.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States was getting deeper into the conflict in Ukraine and was making a mistake by supplying Kiev with these missiles, which he said would not change the situation on the battlefield and could be shot down.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday that the US had agreed to supply Kiev with ATACMS long-range attack missiles “on a regular basis”. His statement came just two days after Kyiv confirmed it had used them for the first time, Reuters reports. .

Last Tuesday, the White House confirmed that it had supplied such missiles to Ukraine after information appeared in the US media, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said the same day that they were already in use by his country’s armed forces.

Until last week, only two countries supplied Ukraine with long-range missiles: Great Britain, which sent the Storm Shadow model to Ukrainian forces, and France, which provided SCALP systems.