Fact Check: Does Video Show US Missiles Firing Into Russia?

United States and Ukrainian officials confirmed on Tuesday that U.S.-made missiles had been fired into Russia for the first time after President Joe Biden permitted Ukraine to do so.
Senior American and Ukrainian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to The New York Times to discuss ongoing operations, acknowledged that ATACMS was utilized, as reports from RIA Novosti said the Ukrainian military fired six ATACMS missiles against a target in the Bryansk region during the night.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has referred to the attack as “escalation”; a U.S. official speaking to Newsweek responded that Lavrov’s comments were “irresponsible rhetoric” and that the use of soldiers from North Korea presented a “significant escalation of its war of choice against Ukraine and we warned that the United States would respond.”
As the news went out, videos appeared on social media that appeared to show the U.S. missiles being launched into Russian territory.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by political commentator Brian Krassenstein, viewed 129,000 times, said: “BREAKING: Ukraine has now officially put US longrange missiles into usage, striking Russian territory in an effort to continue their defense against Russia’s illegal invasion and aggression.”
The post included a video of two missiles being launched.
The Facts
While the video does show the firing of U.S. ATACMS missiles in Ukraine, it does not depict those missiles being fired into Russia.
The video was taken from a CNN report from October 2023, when it was reported that the U.S. had supplied the missiles to Ukrainian forces. Former Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi reportedly posted the video. It shows the missiles being shot from an unnamed location in the Ukrainian countryside.
Though missiles have been fired into Russian territory, as confirmed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials, Krassenstein’s social media post does not clearly explain that the footage is more than a year old.
Neither the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense nor the U.S. Department of Defense appears to have released footage of this week’s missile launches. The Associated Press posted a video on Tuesday that it said came from a Telegram channel associated with the Ukrainian military, allegedly showing the missile system being fired. The news agency said it could not independently verify the date or the location where it was filmed.
Newsweek reached out to media representatives for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense via email for comment.
According to several media reports, Ukraine is likely to use ATACMS in Russia’s western Kursk region.
U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence assessed that more than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed alongside Russian forces after Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border incursion into the region in early August.
The New York Times reported at the end of October that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed to Washington as part of his “victory plan” that Kyiv would receive Tomahawk missiles. One unnamed senior U.S. official told the newspaper that the request for Tomahawks was unrealistic.
Zelensky confirmed to reporters that he had requested the Tomahawks from Washington but described his appeal as “confidential information between Ukraine and the White House.”
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
While U.S. officials have confirmed that its missiles have been fired into Russia from Ukraine, the video posted online does not show that. The footage is from 2023.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team