A missile fired from Ukraine has reportedly been shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in the Russia-controlled Crimea, local officials have unveiled.
“A missile fired from the direction of Ukraine has been shot down over Feodosia,” said the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov in a post on his Telegram social media account on Saturday.
Russia’s TASS news agency further quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris resulting from the strike had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties had so far been reported.
The Western-backed government in Kiev as well as the US and the NATO military alliance have not yet reacted to the missile shutdown.
The development came as Kiev forces have been flushed out of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the scene of one of the most protracted battles in the Russia-Ukraine war.
It also came amid reports that secret documents, detailing plans by the US and the NATO military alliance to assist Ukraine in launching a spring offensive against Russia, were leaked and released on social media platforms, prompting a Pentagon probe.
The documents marked “top secret” – reportedly containing charts and details on weapons deliveries, battalion strengths, and other sensitive material – were leaked on Twitter and Telegram, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing Defense Department officials.
According to the US-based daily, one of the documents summarized the training schedules of 12 Ukraine combat brigades and added that nine of them were being trained by US and NATO forces, further pointing out that 250 tanks and more than 350 mechanized vehicles were needed for the effort.
The report stated that information in the documents also details expenditure rates for munitions under Ukraine military control, including for the HIMARS rocket systems, the US-made artillery weapon widely publicized in Western media reports as being highly effective against Russian forces.
The development came amid persisting US-led efforts to send more weapons to Ukraine to further escalate the military campaign against Russia.
Washington announced a new package of military assistance worth $2.6 billion for Ukraine on Tuesday, which includes a wide variety of ammunition from Pentagon stocks, 23 million rounds of small arms ammunition and 200,000 grenades, as well as funding for more high-tech weapons.
The US has so far pledged more than $35.2 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine since February 2021, when Russia launched a “special military operation” in the former Soviet republic, insisting that it was aimed at defending the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russian officials have repeatedly warned Western countries against supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying it risks prolonging the already protracted war.