Russia Says It Is 'Studying' ATACMS' Navigation Systems

Russia is examining fragments of a U.S.-made long-range missile operated by Ukrainian forces, Moscow state media reported on Monday, shortly after it said a lethal ATACMS strike killed four people in western Crimea.

Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, published footage on Monday of what it said was the first clip showing "the internal structure" of an ATACMS missile, also known as the Army Tactical Missile System. Newsweek could not independently verify the video.

"Russian specialists are studying the guidance and flight correction system of the American operational-tactical missile," the Kremlin-backed news agency reported. The report was then shared elsewhere by Russian state media.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian military for comment.

ATACMS are ground-launched missiles with a range of around 200 miles, provided by the United States to Ukraine for use against high-value Russian targets far behind the front lines in mainland Ukraine and on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Kyiv has received several batches of ATACMS, including shorter-range cluster variants. Since Ukraine debuted its missiles last year, the Washington-donated weapons have been credited with several successful strikes on Russian bases and assets.

However, Kyiv is only permitted to use ATACMS against occupied or annexed areas, not territory internationally recognized as part of Russia. Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is considered a legitimate target for long-range, Western-supplied weapons by Kyiv's backers.

Russian authorities said that Ukrainian ATACMS strikes on Sevastopol, a key base for its Black Sea Fleet on the western edge of Moscow-controlled Crimea, at around midday local time on June 23 had killed four people, including two children, and injured more than 150 others.

Four cluster-variant ATACMS missiles were shot down by air defenses around the city, Russia's Defense Ministry said, and a fifth missile "deviated from the flight path and detonated the warhead in the air over the city territory."

Cluster munitions, often dubbed bomblets, fell toward the city, Moscow said.

Footage widely circulated online appeared to show Sevastopol beachgoers fleeing from the Uchkuyevka area of the coastline.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a post to X on June 24 that Crimea was a "a large military camp and warehouse, with hundreds of direct military targets, which the Russians are cynically trying to hide and cover up with their own civilians.

"There are not and cannot be any 'beaches,' 'tourist zones' and other fictitious signs of 'peaceful life'" on the peninsula, he said.

Russia pointed the finger at the U.S. for the strikes, saying "responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington." A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Moscow's remarks were "ridiculous" and "hyperbolic."

Moscow's Defense Ministry separately claimed that "all flight missions for the American ATACMS operational-tactical missiles are entered by American specialists based on their own U.S. satellite intelligence data."

A spokesperson for the Pentagon said Kyiv "makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations."

An unnamed U.S. official said Ukraine was not zeroing in on civilians, but that an ATACMS missile appeared to be targeting a Russian missile launcher before it was intercepted and exploded, Reuters reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media that "the U.S.' direct involvement in combat which resulted in Russian civilians dying cannot go without any repercussions."

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