Ukraine fires ATACMS, Russia ups hybrid war

What happened

Ukraine fired U.S.-provided long-range missiles into Russia for the first time Tuesday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lowered his country's threshold to use nuclear weapons. The U.S. and Europe said they were more concerned about Russia accelerating its hybrid warfare campaign against NATO countries.

President Joe Biden, who recently approved Ukraine's use of ATACMS missiles inside Russian territory, also agreed Tuesday to provide Kyiv with "nonpersistent" anti-personnel land mines to defend its eastern flank.

Who said what

The U.S. said Ukraine fired seven or eight ATACMS missiles about 70 miles into Russia's Bryansk region early Tuesday, hitting an ammunition depot, and Russia shot down two. Ukraine said the missiles destroyed warehouses storing artillery shells, glide bombs and several kinds of missiles. Russia said it shot down five ATACMS and damaged a sixth.

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As Russia threatened retaliation for the U.S. ATACMS, European countries suggested Russia orchestrated the disabling of undersea data cables between Sweden and Lithuania on Sunday and Finland and Germany on Monday. Western officials said Russia also plotted to firebomb U.S.-bound airplanes, sabotage military installations and instigate arson attacks in Europe.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. Tuesday jointly condemned "Moscow's escalating hybrid activities against NATO and EU countries." The "likely motive" behind such sabotage is to "spread panic, bind security resources, and increase pressure on Western governments by boosting political parties who are campaigning against the massive aid provided to Ukraine," The Wall Street Journal said.

What next?

The U.S. mines should be "delivered soon," the BBC said. "Russia is attacking Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the casualties that they're suffering," one U.S. official said to The Washington Post. "These mines were made specifically to combat exactly this."