2024-04-25 03:35:17
The Americans will also send ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles to Ukraine, among $61 billion worth of weapons and ammunition. It will allow them to engage enemy objects far behind the front line to a greater extent than before.
ATACMS has an impressive range. But Ukraine will have to wait a long time for it (video from October 8, 2023) | Video: Aktuálně.cz/Youtube/Defense TV
After days of speculation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the delivery of ATACMS (short for Army Tactical Missile System). “The result of our negotiations is that we will receive these missiles,” announced Zelensky, who had long been asking the Americans for these weapons.
Ukrainian army officer and former pilot Oleksiy Melnyk told Aktuálně.cz that this is great news and a definite triumph for their soldiers. “We have a critical shortage of missiles with a range longer than 150 kilometers. To some extent, we compensate for this shortage by deploying drones, which, although cheap and we have enough of them, are vulnerable to the enemy’s air defense,” he describes the situation.
But that will change with the delivery of new weapons. “We will be able to eliminate enemy equipment better, and it is also necessary to attack Russian warehouses and supplies in the rear more. Then the superiority of the occupiers will not be so great,” says Melnyk. All Russian airfields, barracks, air defense and artillery positions, as well as fuel and ammunition depots will be at risk.
The missiles are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the warhead weighs 227 kilograms. One type has a range of approximately 165 kilometers, the other approximately 300 kilometers. It is not clear which one Ukraine will receive and how many pieces it will be.
Ukraine already received one shipment last October, but the Pentagon said it was small. Ukrainians have deployed ATACMS only once so far. In the middle of October last year, they hit the airports used by the occupiers in Luhansk and Berdansk. They destroyed many helicopters, and Zelenskyy praised the accuracy of American missiles.
ATACMS missiles can be launched from the same facilities as HIMARS, which Kiev already uses to launch GPS-guided missiles in bursts of up to six at a time. The difference is that only one ATACMS missile can be fired from one launcher at a time. Missiles for the HIMARS systems, which the United States has previously provided to Ukraine, have a range of about eighty kilometers.
The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, said that US aid in the amount of 61 billion dollars will also have a psychological effect on Ukrainian soldiers. It will boost belief that they can fight back against the Russians and turn the tide of the war again after losing 583 square kilometers of territory since last October.
In Russia, information about new deliveries of ATACMS is registered. In a debate on Russian television in the evening broadcast time, presenter and propagandist Olga Skabeyeva listed the cities in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in the west of Russia, which are theoretically within range of these missiles. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened on Wednesday that deliveries of longer-range missiles will only lead to Russia creating a longer buffer zone in Ukraine.
American weapons are already ready to be transported to Ukraine in Germany and Poland, artillery ammunition will reach the Ukrainian positions perhaps as early as the weekend. The Ukrainians expect that the Russian army will still try to take advantage of the situation when the defenders do not have enough ammunition and break through on some sections of the front.
“We expect that they will try to take the city of Khasiv Yar by attack. They have concentrated about 25 thousand soldiers. It will be difficult to hold it, but we can do it,” said the spokesman of the eastern group of Ukrainian troops, Nazar Voloshyn. Chasiv Jar lies east of Bakhmut, which the Russians captured after heavy fighting and heavy losses last May.
“We know that they will try to surprise us with attacks in places where we don’t expect it. Maybe they will achieve some goals, but no strategic victory,” Ukrainian National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko told the Liga.net server. The Garda unites soldiers, policemen and border guards, it has approximately sixty thousand members.
Video: Why the Russians are targeting the city of Chasiv Yar
Why did Russia target the Ukrainian city of Khasiv Yar? | Video: Reuters