#Pentagon #Reveals #Ukrainian #Target #LongRange #ATACMS #Missile
Live-fire test of the Army’s Tactical Missile System at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2021. Photo/us army/AP
WASHINGTON – The United States (US) supplied Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, allows Ukrainian forces to target Russia’s Crimean peninsula “more effectively”.
The news was revealed by the New York Times (NYT), citing senior Pentagon officials.
Washington secretly delivered an unspecified number of long-range ATACMS to Kiev last month.
However, US officials only confirmed this earlier this week, after some media outlets claimed Kiev had begun using the weapons against Russian targets far behind the front lines.
“The goal of supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine is to put more pressure on Crimea, where, currently, Russia has a relatively safe haven,” the NYT wrote on Thursday (25/4/2024), citing a US defense official who not named.
The US delivered ATACMS missiles, believed to have a range of up to 300 kilometers, to Ukraine as part of a $300 million arms package approved by President Joe Biden in mid-March.
On Wednesday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the delivery, but US officials declined to comment on the exact modifications and range of the weapons.
On the morning of April 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had attacked an airbase in Dzhankoy, Crimea, after media reports accused Kiev of using the missiles for the first time in an attack on an airfield about 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the Ukrainian front line. . The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the claims.
