The embassies in Kyiv are closed due to threats of air attack from Russia

U.S. missile war with Russia angered by the Kremlin: a new spiral of tensions between Russia and the United States

A U.S. official told NPR that Ukraine fired a U.S.-made missile system into Russia for the first time.

The precautionary step came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with U.S.-made missiles — a move that angered the Kremlin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday if the media reports were true that Ukraine now has U.S. approval to use Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia, that would spark a “new spiral of tensions” with Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that Ukraine’s military wasn’t capable of using sophisticated weapons without NATO’s help. NATO countries are going to go to war with Russia, Putin said.

The new doctrine, which Putin announced in September, would consider a conventional-weapons attack by a nonnuclear state that’s supported by a nuclear-armed nation as a joint attack on Russia that could meet the conditions for a nuclear response.

The Ukrainian strikes and Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine come about two months before Donald Trump is to be president of the United States.

Trump criticized the amount of US aid forUkraine and repeatedly suggested he would like to end the war with Moscow.

Russia is said to have been building powerful missiles, possibly in an upcoming attempt to crush the Ukrainian power grid.

The Institute for the Study of War says that the range decision won’t have a major impact on the war but it could weaken the Russian war effort.

“Ukrainian long-range strikes against military objects within Russia’s rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities throughout the theater,” it said.

South Korea says that North Korea recently supplied more rocket systems to Russia. It said that North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the front lines.

Ukrainian strikes on a missile factory in Kiev’s Novgorod region: Implications for U.S. forces and Russian missile attacks on Kyiv

Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that makes cargo drones for the armed forces in an overnight attack, according to Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counterdisinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council.

He said that the Ukrainian air force hit an arsenal in Russia’s Novgorod region, located close to the town of Kotovo, 450 miles from the Ukrainian border. The arsenal had various types of missiles. He said that.

Biden’s policy shift came about because of the growing international significance of the war and the arrival of North Korean troops on Russia’s battlefield, officials said.

The U.S. Embassy said its closure and attack warning were issued in the context of ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and anticipated a quick return to regular operations.