The Russian Defense Ministry said on the evening of January 4 that its air defense forces had shot down eight long-range ATACMS missiles and 72 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of Ukraine.

Accordingly, several UAVs were destroyed in the Leningrad region and one UAV was shot down in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer.

A day earlier, Moscow accused Ukraine of firing ATACMS missiles at the Belgorod region, about 40 kilometers from the border. “On January 3, an attack was carried out from the territory of Ukraine against the Belgorod region using ATACMS missiles... These actions will be met with retaliation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The TASS news agency reported that Ukrainian UAV attacks forced Russia to impose temporary restrictions at an airport in St. Petersburg.

Last November, outgoing US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use long-range weapons against Russia, a move the Kremlin condemned as a serious escalation of the nearly three-year conflict.

But the tide seems to be turning. US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview last month that he was “strongly” opposed to Ukraine using US-made long-range weapons to attack Russia, saying it would only “escalate” the conflict.

According to CNN, Russian President Vladimir Putin also threatened to bomb central Kiev with hypersonic ballistic missiles if Ukraine continued to attack Russian territory with long-range Western weapons.

Ukraine enters 2025 increasingly outgunned in a conflict that began in February 2022, when Russia made gains on the eastern front.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday its forces had taken control of the village of Nadiya in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. In Donetsk, the center of Pokrovsk is under increasing pressure from Russia.

Nguyen Khanh (according to TASS, CNN, CNA)