April 25, 2024
The United States has secretly supplied Ukraine with 300-kilometer-range ATACMS missiles in recent weeks, and last week Ukraine used them for the first time in Crimea, U.S. officials and media reported.
The weapons were part of a $300 million US aid package that President Joe Biden approved in March.
On Wednesday evening, a representative of the US State Department officially announced the supply of missiles.
“I can confirm that the United States has provided ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine at the direct direction of the President,” Vedant Patel told reporters, adding that the missiles arrived in Ukraine in April.
According to the Reuters source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the missiles were first used in the early morning of April 17 – they were launched at the airfield in Dzhankoy in annexed Crimea, located regarding 165 km from the Ukrainian front line.
The AP source said strikes also targeted Russian troops in Ukrainian territory under their control. According to the New York Times, we are talking regarding a strike on Russian troops in the occupied city of Berdyansk in the Zaporozhye region.
During 2022-23, Kyiv repeatedly asked the United States for ATACMS missiles with a maximum range, but last fall it received only a batch of missiles of the old MGM-140A modification with a maximum firing range of 165 km. However, Biden has now secretly approved the supply of MGM-164/168 missiles with a range of up to 300 km, according to statements by American officials.
According to Patel, the US “did not initially announce this to ensure Ukraine’s operational security at its request.”
There is no word on exactly how many missiles have been delivered, but US administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan says Washington has provided a “substantial number” and plans to send more. “They will change the situation. But, as I said before, there is no “magic wand,” Sullivan noted.
He added that Ukraine promised to use the missiles only for attacks within occupied Ukrainian territories, and not once morest Russia.
At the same time, British Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, in an interview with the business newspaper Financial Times, said that once morest the backdrop of new Western aid, Ukraine might increase long-range attacks deep in Russian territory. And he expressed no obvious objections to this.
“As Ukraine gains more long-range combat capabilities … its ability to continue deep operations will increasingly become a feature of the war,” Radakin said, adding that those operations are undeniably producing results.
The US decision to supply Ukraine with long-range ATACMS is due to the fact that in December and January Russia used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea, although the US has repeatedly and publicly warned the Kremlin once morest such actions, Reuters writes, citing a US official. Another factor was Russian attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine.
“We warned Russia regarding these things,” the official said. “But they resumed their attacks.”
On Wednesday, Biden signed $95 billion in aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives. Almost 61 billion of this amount is provided for assistance to Ukraine. According to Biden, aid to Kyiv will begin to arrive within a few hours.
Hit on Dzhanka
The fact that the Ukrainian military attacked the area of the military airfield in Dzhankoy became known on April 17. According to local telegram channels, explosions were heard there and a large-scale fire broke out near the airfield.
Crimean public pages wrote regarding several sources of powerful fires, as well as the fact that attack helicopters and S-300/S-400 launchers might have been stationed at this airfield.
Later, the head of the Joint Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, Natalya Gumenyuk, said that the military airfield in Dzhankoy “is a legitimate target” for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, in an evening address that day, thanked the Ukrainian military for its precision during the operation to defeat the Russian airfield in Dzhankoy in annexed Crimea. According to Zelensky, the Ukrainian Armed Forces “carried out the right strike once morest the occupier in Dzhankoy, at the airfield.”
Russian authorities did not comment on reports of explosions in Dzhankoy.
In recent months, the Ukrainian army has been experiencing a shortage of ammunition and air defense systems. Officials argued that the delay in military aid from the US and other Western allies was causing the country to lose lives and territory.
Sullivan said Wednesday that “Russia might achieve new tactical advances in the coming weeks.”
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What is ATACMS
ATACMS are launched using HIMARS and M270 MLRS launchers.
These ballistic missiles formally belong to the operational-tactical class – together with the American GMLRS, the Soviet Tochka-U, the Russian Iskander or the Ukrainian Alder.
At the same time, they can hit more distant targets compared to high-precision GMLRS missiles of the HIMARS complexes – that is, more than 90 kilometers.
The missiles that the United States has now provided to Ukraine have a range of up to 300 km.
Short-range ballistic missiles, which are classified following operational-tactical missiles, have a radius of 500 kilometers.
It is quite appropriate to compare ATACMS with GMLRS – they are launched using the same HIMARS and M270 MLRS launchers, only instead of a launch container with six small missiles, they use a container with one large one.
Operational-tactical missiles were originally created to hit targets as part of a front-line operation, for example, headquarters, communications centers, warehouses, artillery and air defense positions, airfields, bridges.
However, an ATACMS range of 300 kilometers might allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to hit larger targets, and such operations might influence the course of the entire war.
ATACMS have been in development since the late 1970s and began entering service with the US Army in the late 1980s. Their combat debut took place during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, where they proved to be a very effective weapon.
Two types of such missiles can be distinguished: with a high-explosive warhead (they are designed to destroy fortified targets such as bridges and bunkers), as well as with a cluster warhead for attacks on unarmored targets over a large area (it is more suitable for attacks on airfields and unprotected warehouses , air defense positions, artillery and other objects in open space).
