Ukrainian forces have increasingly used U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to target Russian airfields and warships deep behind enemy lines, a practice that has had some success in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory but Washington has banned its expansion into other areas. , limiting its ability to repel Russian attacks.
In the past week, Kiev’s military launched three attacks using the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). The strike, which hit an air defense system and a missile ship in Russian-occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, was reported by both sides and its impact was confirmed by an independent group that analyzed geolocation footage of the battlefield.
Ukraine hopes the strikes will harm Moscow’s ability to conduct military operations and ultimately help ease pressure on troops struggling to contain Russia’s advances on the ground. But fearing an escalation of the war, the United States and other Western allies have allowed Western weapons to be fired only into Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, not Russia itself.
Ukrainian officials complain that the policy allows Moscow to launch attacks from Russian soil without risk and limits Ukraine’s ability to repel attacks. “They acted calmly, understanding that our partners would not allow us” to launch an attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The New York Times last week. “That’s a huge advantage for them.”
Now, faced with difficulties on the battlefield in Ukraine, pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to reverse that policy. The latest call came on Friday, with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg telling The Economist that denying “the possibility of Ukraine using these weapons to attack legitimate military targets on Russian soil makes it difficult for them to Self-defense”.
Ukraine does not produce powerful long-range weapons and therefore relies on its Western allies for them. But Washington has long refused to even provide ATACMS (pronounced “attack ems”), fearing that doing so might cross one of the Kremlin’s “red lines” and lead to escalation.
That changed late last year, when President Biden approved sending to Ukraine an ATACMS capable of striking targets 100 miles away. Then, in April, Washington secretly provided Kiev with a new version of the weapon, which had a range of about 190 miles.
On Friday, the United States announced a $275 million military package for Kyiv that includes HIMARS munitions, a rocket launcher that can fire ATACMS missiles. Zelensky thanked the White House and said on social media that the program included “much needed long-range missiles.”
These missiles enable Ukraine to attack logistics and command posts deep within Russian defenses. Kiev’s targets were airfields, ammunition depots, anti-aircraft missile launchers and troop concentrations.
One specific target is the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, a supply hub for Moscow’s forces in the southeast and a launch pad for missile and drone attacks. Moscow has reported a number of attacks involving ATACMS missiles this month.
Last week, Ukrainian forces said they attacked the Crimean port of Sevastopol and damaged a small missile ship. The Institute for War Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said satellite imagery after the attack showed possible damage to the ship.
In early May, Ukrainian forces attacked Russian air defense systems near an air base in Crimea, according to Oryx, a military analysis website that counts losses based on visual evidence.
But Ukrainian officials say Ukraine’s inability to launch weapons into the Russian mainland gives Moscow a huge advantage, which became more apparent this month when Russian troops opened a new front in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkov region . Moscow has massed troops and equipment near the border ahead of the offensive, but allied policy prohibits Ukraine from targeting them with Western weapons.
After about two weeks of intense fighting, Zelensky said on Friday that Russian progress there had been halted and the situation was under control. Still, the offensive gave Moscow its largest territorial gain in Ukraine since late 2022.
