Russia vows response after Ukraine fires long-range US missiles

Russia warned on Nov 19 that it would respond after Ukraine fired longer-range US missiles at its territory for the first time, as President Vladimir Putin issued a nuclear threat on the 1,000th day of the war.

A senior official told AFP that a strike on Russia's Bryansk region earlier on Nov 19 "was carried out by ATACMS missiles" - a reference to the US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System.

Speaking 1,000 days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the attack showed Western countries wanted to "escalate" the conflict.

"We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia, and we will react accordingly," he told a press conference at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Brazil.

Mr. Putin signed a decree on Nov 19 lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons, a move that the White House, Britain and European Union condemned as "irresponsible".

He has used nuclear rhetoric throughout the conflict but has grown increasingly belligerent since 2023, pulling out of a nuclear test ban treaty and a key arms reduction agreement with the US.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky accused G-20 leaders in Brazil of failing to act over Mr. Putin's nuclear threats, saying the Russian leader had no interest in peace.

He later warned that Ukraine would lose the war if the United States cuts military funding to Kyiv.

US President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal sceptic of the billions that the Biden administration has given to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022.

"If they cut, we will, I think, we will lose," Mr. Zelensky said in an interview with US network Fox News.