San Francisco Frontiers - Russia vows reply after Ukraine strikes again with US missiles

Moscow and Kyiv have been ratcheting up their deadly aerial broadsides with increasingly sophisticated weapons over recent days, spurring fears the conflict could further escalate.

Ukraine first fired US-made ATACMS missiles at Russia last week after getting the green light from Washington, and the Kremlin retaliated with an experimental hypersonic missile that hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

The Russian defence ministry said Ukraine's new ATACMS strikes -- on 23 November and 25 November -- targeted military installations and an airfield in Russia's western Kursk region, causing some damage to the infrastructure.

"Retaliatory actions are being prepared," it added.

Russian forces launched a record 188 drones at Ukraine overnight in an attack that disrupted energy supplies in the east of the country, Kyiv said Tuesday.

- Russia admits 'casualties' -

Ukraine's ATACMS strike on the Kursk Vostochny air base wounded two servicemen, Moscow's defence ministry said in a rare admission, while a strike on an air defence battery damaged a radar system and also caused "casualties".

It said three of the five missiles fired in the first strike were shot down, while seven of the eight used in the second were destroyed.

In response to Ukraine's first use of the US-supplied weapon, Moscow on Thursday used its new Oreshnik experimental hypersonic missile, which Putin hinted was capable of carrying a nuclear payload.

He warned Russia could continue using the weapon depending on "the actions of the United States and its satellites" and said Moscow had the right to hit military facilities in countries that allow Ukraine to use their weapons against Russia.

Moscow's comments on the new strike -- and its record drone barrage -- came as ambassadors from Ukraine and NATO's 32 members were due to meet in Brussels over Russia's firing last week of the intermediate-range missile.

The meeting was to come hours after Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 76 Russian drones in 17 regions, while another 95 were either lost from their radars or downed by electronic jamming defensive systems. It did not specify what happened to the remainder.

"These attacks are possible only because of Russia's ability to circumvent sanctions through various schemes," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in response.

"We need greater collective efforts to enforce sanctions and force Russia to stop this war," he said.

AFP journalists heard explosions ring out over the capital during the attack, while in the relatively untouched western Ternopil region, authorities said the drones had damaged a "critical infrastructure facility," without elaborating.

They said the attack had disrupted electricity supplies in the region and that engineers were working to stabilise the situation.

Kyiv had said it hopes to get "concrete and meaningful outcomes" after calling the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

But diplomats and officials at NATO have played down expectations for any major results from the consultations on Tuesday afternoon at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.

The most that is expected is a reiteration of NATO's earlier insistence that Moscow's deployment of the new weaponry will not "deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine".

- Russian forces advance -

The meeting "provides an opportunity to discuss the current security situation in Ukraine and will include briefings from Ukrainian officials via video link," a NATO official said.

The Kremlin dismissed the meeting, saying it was unlikely any significant decisions would be taken.

On the battlefield, Ukraine's fatigued troops are struggling to halt advances by Russian forces in the east of the country.

Russia said Tuesday its troops had captured another village in the Kharkiv region, in an area where the front line had been relatively stable until recently.

Moscow-appointed officials in the occupied region of Kherson meanwhile said that Ukrainian forces had struck a bus in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding at least seven others.

N.Wilson--SFF