The U.S. State Department confirmed on April 24 that the United States sent long-range missile systems known as ATACMS to Ukraine for use inside its territory, and the weapons arrived in the country this month.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that the ATACMS, short for Army Tactical Missile System, were sent at President Joe Biden’s direction.
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Patel’s confirmation came after U.S. media reports said they were used last week to bomb a Russian military airfield on the Crimean Peninsula illegally occupied by Russia in 2014 and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight.
The ATACMS have a longer striking distance — up to 300 kilometers – than the version of the weapon with a range of 165 kilometers provided by the U.S. in October. They were part of an aid package for Ukraine in March, not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Biden earlier on April 24.
“We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request,” Patel said.
White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that a “significant number” of the missiles had been sent to Ukraine, adding, “We will send more.”
He said Ukraine had committed to only use the weapons inside Ukraine, not in Russia.
The weapons are being sent at a critical time as Russia continues advancing on the battlefield in the eastern region of Donetsk. Russia could make more gains against Ukrainian forces in the coming weeks, Sullivan said.
Patel said Biden directed his national-security team to send the ATACMS specifying that they be used inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.
The Biden administration declined to send them previously over concerns that it would risk further escalating the conflict. According to news reports citing unidentified officials, Russia’s use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January led to a change in heart. Russia’s continued targeting of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure was also a factor, the official said.
The military aid bill signed by Biden clears the way for the Pentagon to announce an assistance package featuring desperately needed artillery and air defense munitions.
U.S. Air Force General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, told a Washington conference on April 24 that the Pentagon had been preparing to send weapons to Ukraine as the bill moved forward in Congress.
“We’ve already leaned pretty far forward on a lot of areas. So we are moving out. We’ll get capability to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” he told the conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Ukraine’s demand for some armaments, like 155-millimeter artillery shells used in howitzers, has outstripped U.S. production, leading to a decline in U.S. stockpiles.
Following the passage of the aid package, the United States will be able to ramp up production of the shells from 30,000 a month now to 100,000 by next summer, General James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the army, told the CSIS conference.
Ukraine has used more than 2 million shells during the 26-month war, he said, a rate of more than 75,000 a month.
“We’ve ramped up to a level that is going to be commensurate with the need,” Mingus said.
