Ukraine has fired US-made weapons at targets inside Russia for the first time, according to Russian sources.

Russia’s ministry of defence and Russian military bloggers have reported that HIMARS, long-range artillery, were fired by Ukraine at Russia on Saturday evening. 

“The enemy has begun using Western-made weapon systems to attack ‘old’ Russian territory. These are fragments of M142 HIMARS MLRS shells,” said the sanctioned Russian war reporter and Kremlin propagandist Evgeniy Poddubny on his Telegram channel underneath a slideshow of several photos. “The Russian Army’s air defence crews destroyed more than 10 missiles in the sky over the Belgorod region.”

Ukraine has not commented. 

The US this week gave Ukraine limited permission to fire US-made weapons at targets inside Russia close to the border with the Kharkiv region.

It had delayed handing permission to Ukraine because of fears the strikes would escalate the war. 

Ukraine, though, said that Russia was massing forces behind the border ahead of attacks and it needed to strike them as an act of self-defence. 

US permission only covers the area immediately north of the border and only allows Ukraine to fire HIMARS at targets in Russia, not longer-range missiles.