Michael R. Gordon, Nancy A. Youssef and Matthew Luxmoore
Ukraine launched ATACMS missiles at Russian forces on Tuesday, marking the first time that the U.S.-provided weapons have been used since Moscow invaded the country.
A small number of the missiles have been secretly sent to Ukraine in recent days, where they will augment Kyiv’s capability to carry out long-range strikes at Russian forces during an important stage of its counteroffensive, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ukraine has long sought ATACMS, a surface-to-surface missile that can be fired by the Himars, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, the U.S. first provided last year.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military’s communication department said on the Telegram messaging app that it “made well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields and helicopters near the temporarily occupied Luhansk and Berdyansk.”
The ATACMS models that were provided have a range of about 100 miles.
The U.S. decision to send the ATACMS, which stands for the Army Tactical Missile System, has been long in the making. Ukraine repeatedly said the missiles were essential to its war plan, giving it the range it needed to strike targets behind the front lines in Russian-held Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said the attacks caused dozens of Russian casualties and destroyed nine Russian helicopters, an air defense launcher and an ammunition depot. It said the military struck the two airfields after receiving intelligence that Russia was using them as a major base for aircraft, military hardware and ammunition in the occupied territories.
In a video message posted online, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had the missiles, saying that “ATACMS have proven themselves” and are being “implemented accurately.” In his message, Zelensky also thanked the U.S.
Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, said that long-range strikes against Russian air bases are a crucial part of Ukraine’s broader strategy of weakening Russian forces as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive.
Such strikes, he said, will force the Russian military to keep its helicopters farther from the front. As a result, Russian helicopters would need to fly farther to reach the front lines, which would diminish their ability to apply firepower and give Ukrainian forces more time to track those flights.
The U.S. decision to send the ATACMS has been the subject of public debate for more than a year. U.S. lawmakers repeatedly pressed the White House to provide the weapons. The decision by Britain and France to provide longer-range cruise missiles to Ukraine earlier this year also raised questions about why the White House wasn’t willing to take a similar step.
At first, the Biden administration held back from providing the missiles because it was worried they might be used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, risking a direct U.S.-Russia clash.
The Pentagon was so concerned about the risk of escalation that it initially had the Himars rocket launchers it provided to Ukraine modified so they couldn’t be used to fire ATACMS missiles should Kyiv acquire them from other sources.
Ukraine sought to ease those concerns by vowing it wouldn’t use American-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Kyiv also had a record in honoring similar pledges with the cruise missiles Britain and France provided.
Yet after the administration’s worries over escalation faded, the Pentagon expressed concern that supplying ATACMS would eat into stockpiles of the weapons it needed for its war plans against future threats.
This summer, the administration’s attitude began to change when it was apparent that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was moving slowly in the face of formidable Russian defenses and U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan asked what other military support Washington might provide.
President Biden’s decision in July to send cluster munitions to Ukraine also facilitated the ATACMS decision. The U.S. has a cluster-munition variant of the missile called APAM, which stands for anti-personnel, anti-materiel, that didn’t figure as prominently as other ATACMS models in the U.S. war plans.
On Aug. 10, the National Security Council staff drafted a memo outlining a number of options to help Ukraine’s forces, and noted the APAM variant could have a significant effect on the battlefield.
On Aug. 30, the council’s principals committee, a cabinet-level body led by Sullivan, recommended unanimously that the weapon be provided.
When Zelensky visited Washington in late September, Biden told the Ukrainian president he was willing to provide ATACMS missiles to help with Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
The first use of ATACMS comes as the counteroffensive, aimed at bisecting Russian occupying forces in the south of the country, is making only incremental advances. Ukrainian forces in August penetrated Russia’s main defensive line, but have been unable to achieve a large-scale breakthrough.
Last week, Russia launched an offensive in the east aimed at surrounding the small industrial town of Avdiivka, apparently calculating that it had manpower to spare and that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had run out of steam.
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