Russia says preparing response to latest Ukraine ATACMS strikes

MOSCOW — Russia said Tuesday it was "preparing" a response to Ukraine's latest attacks on its territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Russia says Ukraine launched two more ATACMS strikes in recent days

Accusing Ukraine of firing on an airfield and military installation in its western Kursk region, Russia's defence ministry said in a post on Telegram: "Retaliatory actions are being prepared."

Russia on Tuesday said its troops had captured another village in an area in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region where the front line had been relatively stable until recently.

The defence ministry said "military units... have liberated the settlement of Kopanky," a village near the Ukrainian-held city of Kupiansk.

Meanwhile, Ukraine struck a bus in Nova Kakhovka on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding at least seven others, Moscow-appointed officials said.

An image shared by the region's Russian-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, showed a passenger bus surrounded by shattered glass and what appeared to be drops of blood.

"As a result of enemy shelling of Nova Kakhovka from 120-millimetre mortars, a passenger bus carrying civilians was hit," Saldo said in a post on Telegram.

A mortar is a type of artillery weapon that fires explosive shells.

"The tragedy claimed the lives of four of our fellow countrymen, and seven more people were injured," he said, denouncing the strike as "barbaric".

Nova Kakhovka lies in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro river.

The river acts as a de-facto frontline between Moscow's and Kyiv's forces, with both sides accusing each other of firing artillery across the vast waterway.

Kyiv did not immediately comment but denies targeting civilians in the Kherson region and other Russian-held areas in the east and south of the country.