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THE US has secretly been sending long-range ballistic missiles to Ukraine that are able to strike targets deep inside Russia.
For the first time last week, Ukraine used the £800,000 ATACMS in two blistering attacks on a military base in Crimea and on Russian forces in occupied Ukraine.
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Last week, Kyiv hit a Russian military base used to launch attacks on Ukraine with ATACMS as well as a second attack on Moscow’s forces
Yesterday, it was announced that Washington had secretly shipped long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missiles fitted with 500lb warhead can reach targets 300km away in just five minutes, three times the speed of UK-supplied Storm Shadows.
With speeds of 2,300mph, the costly weapons can be used for precise strikes on targets behind enemy lines in record amounts of time.
Ukraine had long sought to get its hands on some ATACAMS but the US had held off supplying them over fears they may be used to strike Russia.
The killer missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance it had with the mid-range version of the weapon it received from the US last October.
And the ATACMS can be launched by a M-142 Himars artillery rocket system, which is already in use on the battlefield.
In the overnight ambush last week, Kyiv’s forces used its new missiles to hit both a Russian military base in annexed Crimea and Russian forces in a occupied territory in Ukraine.
Dramatic footage showed blinding explosions as the high-tech weapons destroyed a valuable ammunition store at the airfield.
The Dzhankoi base is used by Putin’s twisted forces to launch strikes on Ukraine.
The airfield is home to valuable kit including Putin’s Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter, the Mi-8, Mi-28N, and the Mi-35M along with Russian S-300 and S-400 missile systems.
Missile alerts were only sounded after the first strike, suggesting the Russians were taken by surprise at the ATACMS blitz.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said yesterday: “I can confirm that the United States provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS at the president’s direct direction.”
But “we did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request,” Patel said, adding that the “missiles arrived in Ukraine this month.”
The US-made missiles can be equipped with a 500lb warhead
APUS National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States plans to send more of the long-range missiles to Ukraine.
“They will make a difference. But as I’ve said before at this podium… there is no silver bullet,” Sullivan said.
Russia’s use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January, despite US private warnings not to do so, led to a change in heart, a Pentagon official said.
Professor Anthony Glees, a defence expert from the University of Birmingham, called ATACMS “game-changing weapons”.
He told The Sun: “We need to know how many of them are being supplied, but they change the picture both in a battlefield sense and a strategic sense.”
He said he expects Russian soldiers on the ground to now be quaking in their boots.
“I think they’ll be very frightened indeed… because they have so far felt safe as long as they’re far enough away from the missiles that Ukraine has got.”
Former US General Ben Hodges hailed ATACMS as playing a “critical role in neutralising Russia’s only advantage – mass, [being] lots of soldiers”.
Hodges, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, told The Sun they will have a “significant” effect on he battlefield.
“Now every square meter of Russian-occupied Ukraine is within range of ATACMS…which means that every HQ, logistics site, key weapon system and airfield in that area can be hit.
“Crimea can soon be untenable for the Russian navy and air force.”
The confirmation of ATACMS being used by Ukraine came the same day that President Joe Biden signed the bill to provide Ukraine with a £50billion war chest.
The announcement brought relief along Ukraine‘s 600-mile front after Kyiv had to painfully ration its weapons, leaving its forces vulnerable to deadly Russian attacks.
After six-months of stalling in Congress, Biden cleared the way for desperately needed artillery, missiles and air defense munitions to head for Kyiv.
Sullivan revealed that more ATACMS missiles were part of this package.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed it as a historic decision “that keeps history on the right track” against “Russian evil”.
In “just days”, according to US officials, the fresh weapons could reach Ukraine’s frontline and experts say it could be just in time to blunt Russia‘s new offensive.
With near impunity, Moscow has exploited that delay – pounding Ukraine’s cities and critical infrastructure and exhausting its air defence arsenal.
Russian troops are now trying to press home their advantage, advancing three miles in ten days in the Donetsk region, in contrast to last year’s static front lines.
AP
AFP
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