According to the The Wall Street Journal, Ukraine has used a British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile to strike a Russian plant that produced explosives and rocket fuel in Bryansk, citing a post by the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
The Journal reports:
[Ukraine] called the strike a “successful hit” that penetrated Russian air defenses.
The unannounced U.S. move to enable Kyiv to use the missile in Russia comes after authority for supporting such attacks was recently transferred from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon to the top U.S. general in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO commander.
The shift coincided with a push in early October by President Trump to pressure the Kremlin into talks on ending the war, including the possibility that he would approve sending Kyiv U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. Trump has since backed off that proposal.
However U.S. officials said they expect Ukraine to conduct more cross-border attacks using the Storm Shadow, which is launched from Ukrainian aircraft and can travel more than 180 miles. The U.S. can restrict Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow because the missiles use American targeting data.
President Donald J. Trump responded to the report, writing on Truth Social, “The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS! The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”
Meanwhuile, the U.S. has put new sanctions on Russia, targeting its two largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft) and Lukoil OAO (Lukoil).
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
The new sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies represents an effort to pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.
“Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” Trump said Wednesday after a meeting with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss peace negotiations.
Trump said the sanctions were enacted because he “just felt it was time.”
Trump also said the meeting he had planned with Putin in Budapest had be shelved indefinitely.
Putin summit ‘didn’t feel right’ but will be held ‘in the future’, US President Donald Trump says.
He adds it ‘was time’ to impose sanctions on Russia’s biggest oil firmshttps://t.co/Cwnu7WtzIr
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