US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles—Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMs) by Lockheed Martin—to conduct limited strikes deep inside Russia even as Moscow has been targetting Ukraine's infrastructure with drone and missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles.
The move comes even as President Vladimir Putin positioned North Korean troops along Ukraine's northern border in an attempt to reclaim hundreds of miles of territory seized by Ukrainian forces.
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For more than a year, Ukraine has been using US-supplied ATACMs to hit Russian targets in occupied Ukrainian territory, including military positions in the Zaporizhzhia region. However, Kyiv did not have the US sanction to use them inside Russia as there were fears that using them to hit targets inside Russia would lead to an escalation of the conflict.
All about ATACMS
Capable of travelling up to 300km, these ballistic missiles will now allow Ukraine to target Russian military bases, ammunition storage, and defence and other infrastructure like Kerch Bridge, which links Crimea to mainland Russia.
A conventional surface-to-surface artillery weapon system capable of striking targets well beyond the range of existing Army cannons, rockets and other missiles, ATACMs are fired from the MLRS family of launchers.
These long-range, guided missile comes with an improved guidance package with GPS, and carries a WDU18, 500-lb class blast fragmentation warhead.
How will use of ATACMs impact the Russia-Ukraine conflict?
Although the missiles may not alter the course of war, as Russia has moved its military equipment like jets deeper inside Russia, it will surely boost the morale of the Ukrainian forces.
BBC quoted a Western diplomat as saying that although strikes using these ballistic missiles may not be decisive, "it is an overdue symbolic decision to raise the stakes and demonstrate military support to Ukraine."
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"It can raise the war cost for Russia," the diplomat said.
According to a recent study, hundreds of known Russian military infrastructures are in the range of ATACMs.
"The redeployment of Russian aircraft from 16 Russian air bases in range of ATACMs does not reduce the importance of allowing Ukraine to use ATACMs against hundreds of other Russian military objects, however, nor does the reportedly small number of ATACMs the US has provided," according to a study by ISW.
Meanwhile, reports also suggest that the Pentagon said there are not too many of these ATACMs that the US can provide to Ukraine, suggesting that the impact that Ukraine will make with these missiles would be limited.