Ukraine’s First ATACMS Strike Inside Russia Sparks Ammo Storage Fireball

Ukraine has used long-range ATACMS missiles against a target inside Russia for the first time, according to Ukrainian news agency RBC-Ukraine, citing a source inside the country’s defense forces.

The missiles, which have a range of 190 miles, struck a munitions storage facility near the city of Karachev in Bryansk Oblast in western Russia, over 70 miles from the Ukrainian border, on November 19, the outlet said.

“Indeed, this is the first time that ATACMS has been used to strike Russian territory. The strike was carried out on a facility in the Bryansk region, and it was successfully destroyed,” the source told the outlet.

The target was Russia’s 67th arsenal of the Russian Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU), which may have been hit in a combined drone-missile attack.

It followed President Joe Biden authorizing Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range weapons to conduct strikes on Russian territory.

Local residents captured video of the explosions. OSINTechnical, a military analyst on X, formerly Twitter, included one in a post which said: “Early this morning, a large explosion tore through Russia’s 67th GRAU Arsenal, a critical ammunition storage facility in Bryansk Oblast, sending a fireball soaring hundreds of feet in the air. Ukrainian attack drones had been spotted in the area.”

Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for comment via email.

The attack was confirmed by Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, in a post on Telegram which said that Russians stored “artillery ammunition, including anti-aircraft missiles for their systems, anti-aircraft missiles and ammunition for the RSV” at the facility.

The governor of the city of Karachev earlier reported that eight enemy drones were shot down in the morning, and local authorities previously reported that it was a UAV attack, according to Astra Press’, an independent Russian news outlet on Telegram.

The drone attack was one of several, as Rostov Oblast authorities also reported drones being intercepted by Russia’s air defenses, and another UAV was allegedly shot down near the city of Taganrog, according to the New Voice of Ukraine.

The ammunition storage facility city of Karachev and has come under attack at least three more times during the war.

Ukraine has also struck other Russian ammunition depots. Kyiv began conducting more drone strikes against Russia’s GRAU facilities late last summer and previous drone attacks have targeted similar ammo dumps in Tikhoretsk, Toropets, Adygeya Republic, Kotluban, and Krasnodar.

In Ukraine’s previous attack on the depot on Krasnodar, a depot was hit that reportedly housed Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones.

The most recent attack on a Russian ammunition depot was in early October, also targeting the 67th GRAU arsenal in Bryansk which Kovalenko previously described as “a storage facility for North Korean supplies.”

Ivan Stupak, a military expert formerly with Ukraine’s SBU security service, previously told Newsweek that there are approximately 20 GRAU facilities across Russia, with six or seven being closest to Ukraine.

Stupak also said that Kyiv has previously targeted four facilities.

Ukraine’s strikes on Russian munitions depots and weapons storage facilities have coincided with new satellite images that revealed Russia beginning to ramp up its missile production to make up for mounting weapons losses.