Ukraine increases attacks with US long-range missiles

The Ukrainian army has increasingly used U.S. long-range missiles to attack Russian airfields and warships deep behind enemy lines. This approach has had some success in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, but Washington has banned it from extending its attacks into Russian territory, limiting its ability to repel Russian attacks.

Last week, Kyiv’s armed forces launched three attacks using army tactical missile systems, known as ATACMS. The airstrikes – which hit an air defense system and a missile ship in Russian-occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine – were reported by both sides, and their impact was confirmed by independent groups analyzing geolocated footage of the battlefield.

Ukraine hopes the attacks will undermine Moscow’s military capacity and ultimately help relieve pressure on troops trying to contain the Russian advance on the ground. But fearing an escalation of the war, the US and other Western allies have only allowed Western weapons to be fired on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, not on Russia itself.

Ukrainian politicians complain that this policy allows Moscow to launch attacks from inside Russia without risk and hampers Ukraine’s ability to repel them. “They are proceeding calmly, knowing that our partners will not give us permission,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the New York Times last week. “That is their big advantage.”

Now, given Ukraine’s difficulties on the battlefield, pressure is growing on the Biden administration to change that policy. The latest call came on Friday, when NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Economist that denying Ukraine the ability to use those weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory would make it very difficult for it to defend itself.

Ukraine does not produce powerful long-range weapons and is therefore dependent on its Western allies. However, Washington has long refused to provide ATACMS (pronounced “Attack Ems”) for fear that doing so would cross one of the Kremlin’s “red lines” and lead to escalation.

That changed late last year when President Biden agreed to supply Ukraine with a version of the ATACMS that can hit targets 100 miles away. Then in April, Washington secretly handed Kyiv a new version of the weapon with a range of about 190 miles.

And on Friday, the United States announced a $275 million military package for Kyiv that includes ammunition for HIMARS, a rocket launcher capable of firing the ATACMS missiles. Mr Zelensky thanked the White House and said on social media that the package included “much-needed long-range missiles”.

The missiles have enabled Ukraine to hit logistics and command posts deep behind Russian lines. Kiev has targeted airfields, ammunition depots, missile defense facilities and troop concentrations.

A particular target is the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, a supply hub for Moscow’s forces in the southeast and a launching pad for missile and drone attacks. Moscow reported several attacks with ATACMS missiles this month.

Last week, the Ukrainian army said it had struck the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, damaging a small missile ship. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said satellite images of the aftermath of the attack showed likely damage to the ship.

In early May, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian air defense system near an air base in Crimea, according to Oryx, a military analysis website that counts casualties based on visual evidence.

But Ukraine’s inability to fire the weapons at Russia itself gives Moscow a significant advantage, Ukrainian officials say. This became even clearer when Russian forces opened a new front in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine this month. In the run-up to the offensive, Moscow had massed troops and equipment near the border, but allied policy prohibited Ukraine from attacking it with Western weapons.

After about two weeks of heavy fighting, Zelensky said on Friday that the Russian advance there had stalled and the situation was under control. Nevertheless, the offensive has given Moscow its biggest territorial gains in Ukraine since late 2022.