KYIV, Ukraine — Russia‘s Defense Ministry said that air defenses shot down 10 U.S.-supplied Ukrainian missiles targeting the Crimean Peninsula early Wednesday, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent a second day visiting Kyiv, and Ukraine’s army battled to contain a front-line push by the Kremlin’s forces.
The ATACMS long-range ballistic missiles were destroyed over the Black Sea, the ministry said. The U.S. included the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, in a military aid package in March.
The Ukrainian attack came as Russian troops pressed their offensive in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv region that began last week, marking the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began and forcing almost 8,000 local people to flee their homes. Together with Moscow‘s weekslong effort to build on its recent gains in the eastern Donetsk region, the more than two-year war has entered a critical stage for Ukraine’s depleted army.
Against that grim backdrop, with thousands of Ukrainian troops locked in fierce battles in towns and villages, Blinken on Tuesday pledged unceasing U.S. support for the country, during and beyond the war. He also tried to lift spirits in Kyiv, performing on guitar with a band at a city bar and eating pizza at a veteran-run restaurant.
Russia is opening new fronts in order to stretch Ukraine’s army, which is short of ammunition and manpower, along the about…
