At a moment the Kremlin is warning it could target cities in the West, expanding the war outside of Ukraine, if US-supplied missiles attack Russian territory, the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was pounded by rockets for the first time in a month on Sunday.
A Russian military statement said it had targeted an arms depot housing foreign-supplied weapons with a volley of five missiles. On the same day, President Vladimir Putin vowed to "strike harder" if Washington transfers long-range missiles to the Ukrainian government. "We will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting," he said in a state TV interview.
According to Fox News, "Footage shows several large explosions in Kyiv, but it is unclear what was struck. The Russian Defense Ministry released a statement Sunday morning claiming the strike had hit a former car-repair facility being used to house T-72 tanks and other armored vehicles supplied by Ukrainian allies, NEXTA reported."
The biggest development following White House approval of $700 million more in military aid for Ukraine has been the announced transfer of Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). It's expected that training for Ukrainian personnel to operate these longer range missile systems will take at least three weeks.
The Biden administration said that while longer range rockets have been approved, the types of systems being transferred are still not of range to strike into Russian territory, which the Kremlin earlier called a "rational" decision.
This prompted a weekend statement from Putin as follows:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that...