Russian forces destroy Storm Shadow missile depot in western Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry says the strike was in response to a strike on a road bridge over the Chongar Strait.
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Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile (Wikimedia Commons)
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Saturday that the Russian armed forces have destroyed a depot with Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi region.
"On June 23, a warehouse with Storm Shadow cruise missiles was destroyed at a Ukrainian airbase near the village of Starokostyantyniv, Khmelnytskyi region, in response to a strike on a road bridge over the Chongar Strait," the Ministry said in a statement.
Acting Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo confirmed early Thursday that the Ukrainian armed forces have attacked bridges on the administrative border between the Kherson Region and the Crimea near the village of Chonhar.
"The criminal Kiev regime committed barbaric shelling of civilian objects - bridges on the administrative border between the Kherson Region and the Crimea near Chonhar," Saldo said on Telegram.
He considered that Kiev wants to intimidate residents of the Kherson Region and sow panic among the population, affirming that it will not succeed in this plan.
According to the preliminary assessment, the Ukrainian armed forces used the United Kingdom's Storm Shadow missiles in the attack on the bridges.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed on Tuesday that Ukraine intends to use HIMARS and Storm Shadow cruise missiles to attack Crimea and other Russian regions.
Ukraine was confirmed to have acquired its first long-range cruise missiles from the United Kingdom on May 11.
It is noteworthy that the 250km-range Storm Shadow missiles were sold with the condition that they may only be used "within Ukrainian sovereign territory."
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has breached this criterion by causing civilian fatalities in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), which Russia regards to be part of its own territory since referendums in September 2022.
On May 12, Ukraine used two Storm Shadow cruise missiles and one US-made ADM-160 MALD decoy missile to shell Lugansk, as per the representative office of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes (JCCC).
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed back then that the strikes were carried out "using Storm Shadow missiles supplied to the Kiev regime by the UK, contrary to London's assertions that these weapons would not be used against civilian targets."
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