The United States has been secretly sending long-range ballistic missiles to Ukraine that can hit targets deep inside Russia.
For the first time last week, Ukraine used the £800,000 ATACMS in two devastating attacks on a military base in Crimea and on Russian forces in occupied Ukraine.
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Yesterday it was announced that Washington had secretly sent long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missiles equipped with a 500-pound warhead can hit targets 300 kilometers away in just five minutes, three times the speed of the UK-supplied Storm Shadows.
With speeds of 2,300 mph, these expensive weapons can be used for precise strikes against targets behind enemy lines in record time.
Ukraine had long tried to get its hands on some ATACAMS, but the United States had held off on supplying them for fear they could be used to attack Russia.
The killer missiles give Ukraine nearly double the strike range it had with the medium-range version of the weapon it received from the United States last October.
And ATACMS can be launched by a Himars M-142 artillery rocket system, which is already in use on the battlefield.
In last week’s nighttime ambush, kyiv forces used their new missiles to attack both a Russian military base in annexed Crimea and Russian forces in occupied territory in Ukraine.
Dramatic footage showed blinding explosions as high-tech weapons destroyed a valuable ammunition warehouse at the airfield.
The Dzhankoi base is used by Putin’s twisted forces to launch attacks against Ukraine.
The airfield is home to valuable equipment including Putin’s Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter, the Mi-8, the Mi-28N and the Mi-35M, along with the Russian S-300 and S-400 missile systems.
Missile alerts only sounded after the first attack, suggesting that the Russians were caught off guard by the ATACMS bombing.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said yesterday: “I can confirm that the United States provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS under the direct direction of the president.”
But “we did not announce this from the beginning to maintain the operational security of Ukraine at their request,” Patel said, adding that “the missiles arrived in Ukraine this month.”
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US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US plans to send more long-range missiles to Ukraine.
“They will make a difference. But as I’ve said before on this podium… there is no silver bullet,” Sullivan said.
Russia’s use of long-range ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea against Ukraine in December and January, despite private warnings from the United States not to do so, prompted a change of heart, a Pentagon official said.
Professor Anthony Glees, a defense expert at the University of Birmingham, called ATACMS “revolutionary weapons”.
He told The Sun: “We need to know how many of them are being supplied, but they change the picture both in a battlefield sense and in a strategic sense.”
He said he hopes Russian soldiers on the ground are now shaking.
“I think they will be really scared… because up until now they have felt safe as long as they are far enough away from the missiles that Ukraine has.”
Former US General Ben Hodges praised ATACMS for playing a “critical role in neutralizing Russia’s only advantage: mass, (being) many soldiers.”
Hodges, a former US Army Europe commander, told The Sun they will have a “significant” effect on the battlefield.
“Now every square meter of Russian-occupied Ukraine is within ATACMS range… meaning every headquarters, logistics site, key weapons system and airfield in that area can be attacked.
“Crimea may soon be defeated by the Russian navy and air force.”
Confirmation that Ukraine uses ATACMS came on the same day President Joe Biden signed the bill to provide Ukraine with a £50 billion war chest.
The announcement brought relief along Ukraine’s 600-mile front after kyiv had to painfully ration its weapons, leaving its forces vulnerable to deadly Russian attacks.
After six months of stalemate in Congress, Biden cleared the way for desperately needed artillery, missiles and air defense munitions to head to kyiv.
Sullivan revealed that more ATACMS missiles were part of this package.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed it as a historic decision “that keeps history on the right path” against the “Russian evil.”
In “just a few days,” according to U.S. officials, new weapons could reach Ukraine’s front lines, and experts say it could be just in time to blunt Russia’s new offensive.
Almost with impunity, Moscow has taken advantage of that delay, attacking Ukraine’s cities and critical infrastructure and depleting its air defense arsenal.
Russian troops are now trying to press their advantage, advancing three miles in ten days in the Donetsk region, in contrast to the static front lines of last year.
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