Live updates: Kyiv launches US-made missiles into Russia’s Bryansk region | CNN

Ukraine has fired US-made ATACMS missiles into Russia’s Bryansk region, Russia’s defense ministry said, in a major escalation on the 1,000th day of war.

The attack comes just two days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light to use the longer-range American weapons against targets inside Russia.

Kyiv did not immediately respond to the report. The incident would mark the first time Ukraine has used the longer-range American weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia, and shows that Kyiv has wasted little time in making use of its newly-granted powers.

At 3:25 a.m. local time (7:25 p.m. ET) Tuesday, Ukraine fired six ballistic missiles at a facility in Bryansk, the ministry said.

Russian air defenses said they shot down five of the missiles and another was damaged. Fragments from the damaged missile fell on the territory of a military facility, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no casualties or damage.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use longer-range American missiles inside Russia, ending a months-long prohibition aiming to help Ukraine defend itself while not drastically escalating the conflict.

The decision came at a crucial moment in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia is probing on the frontlines in Ukraine’s east while pummeling its cities with missile and drone strikes, aiming to disable Ukraine’s power grid and weaponize the region’s freezing temperatures for a third consecutive winter.