If Congress passes a new budget package, the US administration of President Joe Biden is ready to deploy long-range tactical missiles to Ukraine. The current version of the missiles, called Atacms, is being offered.
If a new $60 billion assistance package, which was passed by the Senate but is currently being held up by Republicans in Congress, becomes law, the missiles will be sent. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine, has said Russia is taking advantage of the country’s assistance delays.
After receiving guarantees from Kyiv that the missiles would not be used for strikes within Russia, the United States authorized the shipment of a shorter-range version of the rockets in October. The Biden administration is planning to provide Ukraine with upgraded Atacms missiles that can carry cluster bomblets and have a maximum range of 300 kilometers, enabling the Ukrainian military to launch attacks on the Crimean peninsula.
Anonymous US sources told NBC that the US may ask NATO members to send missiles to Ukraine so the US administration could replenish its stocks.
In recent days, Rustem Umerov, the defense minister of Ukraine, said that long-range weapons are needed to destroy enemy formations. When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Munich, a US State Department readout said that the diplomats were expected to address ammunition, air defense, and long-range capabilities, among other vital topics.
After the system was used to attack helicopters at two airports in territory occupied by the Russians in October, Vladimir Putin referred to the transfer of tactical ballistic missiles to Ukraine as another misstep by the United States. The president of Russia said that the missiles would be of little use to Ukraine and their suffering would just be prolonged.
According to a US defense department spokesman, additional military hardware cannot be sent to Ukraine without a supplementary budget authorization. Ukraine will have the drones it needs to detect and identify targets crucial to its continuing war thanks to Canada’s donation of over 800 SkyRanger R70 multi-mission Unmanned Aerial Systems.
