US refuses to supply Ukraine with ATACMS missiles

Flush with recent battlefield successes, Ukrainian officials are pressing their case for acquiring longer-range missiles to strike deeper into Russian-held territory, including Crimea, raising questions about how aggressively the Biden administration will support Kyiv’s war aims.

U.S. officials have urged Ukraine to focus on its battles in the eastern and southern parts of the country, particularly around Kharkiv and Kherson, where it has made its largest gains since Russia’s February. 24 invasion, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 6.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are reviving their pleas for more weaponry, including advanced systems like the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, congressional and U.S. officials said.

Those long-range missiles are wanted, in part, to strike into Crimea, which Russia is using as a base to launch Iranian-made drones, congressional and Ukrainian officials said. President Biden has so far declined to provide Ukraine with the ATACMS, which would be capable of reaching deep into Russian territory.

The recent Ukrainian military offensive has pushed Russian troops from the Kharkiv region and reached deep into the northern part of the Donetsk region. Those gains may embolden Kyiv to try to press into Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

The administration’s reluctance to provide these long-range missiles reflects a deeper dispute, in part, over how to support Ukraine without risking a broader conflict with Russia, whose leaders have been hinting they may resort to nuclear weapons.

“The reason we are not giving them these weapons is disagreement over striking targets in Crimea,” a congressional official said.

Ukraine’s defence attaché in Washington, Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi, said on October 6 that Russia was mainly using Iranian-provided drones to attack civilian infrastructure. He added that Ukraine was using air defense systems to blunt the threat but was also looking to attack the sites from which the drones are being flown and controlled.

While HIMARS, a U.S. mobile rocket launcher already provided to Kyiv, is an effective system for this purpose, he added that Ukraine wants to acquire longer-range systems that could be fired from the Himars launcher. He didn’t mention the ATACMS missile by name and declined to discuss targets in Crimea.

“We are looking for long-range missiles for HIMARS,” he told a webinar hosted by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. “We need to hit some targets on the occupied Ukrainian territory. ”

The Biden administration recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine, and has vowed to support Kyiv’s efforts to restore all of its original territories. In August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Ukraine would take back Crimea “by ourselves, without consultation with any other country in the world.”

U.S. officials argue longer-range missiles aren’t necessary for Ukraine’s current fight, and believe Moscow would see it as an escalation at a time when senior Russian leaders have raised the specter of using the country’s nuclear arsenal.

“We are not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia,” Mr. Biden said in May.