The United States has quietly delivered the long-range ballistic missiles that Ukraine said it urgently needed and that President Joe Biden promised last month, U.S. officials said Tuesday, and Ukraine has already begun using them on the battlefield against Russia for the first time.
The missiles arrived in Ukraine within the last few days, one of the officials said. Their delivery to the warfront gives Ukraine a critical ability to strike Russian targets that are farther away, allowing Ukrainian forces to stay safely out of range. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before an official announcement and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
The delivery of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, was shrouded in secrecy, with the expectation that the first public acknowledgement would come when the missiles were used on the battlefield. That intense secrecy is a marked change from previous U.S. weapons sent by the Biden administration. In nearly all other cases, the U.S. has publicly announced its decision prior to the weapons and equipment being shipped overseas.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Their delivery to the warfront gives Ukraine a critical ability to strike Russian targets that are farther away, allowing Ukrainian forces to stay safely out of range.
Because of lingering U.S. concerns about escalating tensions with Russia, the ATACMS version that went to Ukraine will have a shorter range than the maximum distance the missiles can have.
While some versions of the missiles can go as far as about 180 miles (300 kilometers), the ones sent to Ukraine have a shorter range and carry cluster munitions, which, when fired, open in the air, releasing hundreds of bomblets rather than a single warhead.
But the Biden administration balked for months, worried that Kyiv could use the weapons to hit deep into Russian territory, enraging Moscow and escalating the conflict.
The U.S., however, has refused to provide any details on timing or how many missiles would be delivered, although officials suggested that the plan was to send a small number, roughly two dozen.
Ukrainian forces want to use the missiles to help fuel their counteroffensive as it heads into the muddy and colder winter months, enabling troops to strike behind Russian lines while staying out of firing range.
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