Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range of up to 300 kilometers, were included in the $300 million military aid package approved by President Joe Biden on March 12, according to the official, who spoke with Reuters.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said Ukraine used the missiles for the first time last Wednesday, targeting a Russian airfield about 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the front line.
On the morning of April 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had attacked the air base in Dzhankoy, Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on that claim.
Zelensky has long called for longer-range missiles. According to the anonymous official cited in the Reuters report, the Pentagon initially opposed it but changed its mind after Russia used ballistic missiles allegedly supplied by North Korea and began targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“We warned Russia about those things,” the official said.
“They renewed their objectives.”
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown advised Biden to send longer-range missiles, the report added. official.
The ATACMS were purchased from Lockheed Martin, rather than from Pentagon reserves, and paid for with “savings” discovered in March, when several military contracts were reported to have been awarded for less than the original bid value.
According to the official, Biden ordered his aides to include ATACMS in the package but keep it secret, to preserve Ukraine’s “operational security and element of surprise.”
Ukraine first received medium-range ATACMS last September. However, the Russian military quickly began to shoot them down, thwarting Zelensky’s plan to damage or destroy the Crimean Bridge.
“This is yet another mistake on the part of the United States,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last October, explaining that if Washington had refrained from sending the missiles, it could have later positioned itself as the “good guy” for its attempts to avoid unnecessary victims.
Since Russia is upgrading its air defenses to intercept ATACMS, its arrival will not have a major impact on combat operations and will only “prolong the agony” of Ukraine, Putin explained, adding: “That is why it is a mistake.”
Reacting to Washington’s secret delivery of ATACMS missiles to kyiv, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said the long-range missiles the United States has supplied to Ukraine are “extremely dangerous weapons,” but they will not help Kiev to change the course of the conflict against Ukraine. Moscow.
The delivery of long-range missiles to kyiv is “impossible to justify,” Antonov wrote in a post on Telegram on Thursday.
Washington’s measure “increases the threat to the security of Crimea, including Sevastopol, the new Russian regions (the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions) and other Russian cities,” he added.
Assurances from US officials that long-range missiles will not be used against Russian territory are “particularly cynical,” the ambassador stressed.
“How can we ignore the numerous terrorist attacks by kyiv criminals? Deadly attacks on hospitals, schools, daycares, bridges and even their own military?
Antonov recalled that Russian forces already shot down medium-range ATACMS missiles that Ukraine had received last September. The same will happen with their long-range counterparts, he assured, adding that “neither these missiles nor other weapons can help defeat Russia.”
“Aren’t local politicians (in the United States) afraid of drowning in the quagmire of conflict? “Washington will not be able to get out of the horrible swamp that has absorbed the blood of the common soldiers,” the envoy warned.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova pointed to the fact that Washington’s recognition of sending long-range ATACMS to Ukraine comes amid attempts by kyiv and its Western backers to “mislead the community.” international for some kind of conference to be held on the ‘Zelensky formula’.” .
“Washington’s plan is sickeningly simple: drag everyone into a meaningless meeting under the pretext of ‘peaceful intentions,’ and at the same time increase Zelensky’s terrorist potential,” he wrote on Telegram.