MOSCOW,
April 30 (Reuters) - Russian officials said on Tuesday that Ukraine had
attacked Crimea with U.S.-produced Army Tactical Missile Systems
(ATACMS) in an attempt to pierce Russian air defences of the annexed
peninsula but that six had been shot down.
Washington
secretly shipped the long-range missiles to Kyiv as part of a $300
million military aid package for Ukraine that U.S. President Joe Biden
approved on March 12, a U.S. official said last week.
Whether
to send the ATACMS missiles with a range up to 300 km was a subject of
debate within the Biden administration for months. Mid-range ATACMS were
supplied last September.
The
Russian Defence Ministry said six ATACMS had been shot down but it did
not say where. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, said
ATACMS missiles were shot down over the peninsula, which Moscow annexed
from Ukraine in 2014.
"Ten
Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, six ATACMS tactical missiles
manufactured by the United States and two guided 'Hammer' aircraft bombs
manufactured by France were shot down by air defences," the ministry
said.
Russian
lawmaker Leonid Ivlev, who once served in the Soviet Air Force, said
Ukraine struck at airbases in Crimea with 12 ATACMS, and added that
attacks could increase ahead of President Vladimir Putin's inauguration
for a new term next week.
"Their
target is airfields. The missiles were destroyed by air defences,"
Ivlev told RIA news agency. He said Ukraine was trying to pierce the air
defence shield over Crimea to then strike at strategically important
facilities.
MORE ATTACKS AHEAD?
"I
admit that as the May holidays approach, as well as the inauguration of
the president of Russia, new attempts to attack the peninsula are
possible," Ivlev was quoted as saying.
The influential pro-Russian Rybar Telegram channel said 30 such missiles had been fired at Crimea in recent days.
Ukraine
overnight fired eight missiles at the Dzhankoy airbase and four at the
airfield in Gvardeyskoye. It said the missiles were launched from the
Kherson region.
Aksyonov
posted on Telegram a photo showing what he described as undetonated
submunitions of ATACMS missiles without specifying how many missiles had
been shot down.
The
ATACMS missiles were used for the first time in the early hours of
April 17, launched against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about
165 km (103 miles) from the Ukrainian front lines, a U.S. official told
Reuters in Washington.
The
Pentagon initially opposed the long-range missile deployment, fearing
the loss of the missiles from the American stockpile would hurt U.S.
military readiness.
There
were also concerns that Ukraine would use them to attack targets deep
inside Russia, a step which could lead to an escalation of the war
towards a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.
Reporting by Reuters Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones