Joe Biden, the outgoing President of the United States, has granted Ukraine the authority to employ advanced American long-range weapons, ATACMS, inside Russia.
Biden and his advisors worry that the decision could introduce a new and potentially dangerous phase to the conflict at a time when thousands of North Korean troops are preparing to join Moscow’s war effort.
The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky remarked that the “missiles will speak for themselves,” while the Kremlin reacted by claiming that the move demonstrates the Biden administration’s desire to “throw oil on the fire” of the conflict.
CNN reports that the Biden administration intends to use the missiles in the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine launched a surprise counterattack during the summer, despite not disclosing any specifics about its decision to deploy the weapons.
Ukrainian forces employed U.S.-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the very first time in October 2023. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that the weapons had demonstrated their effectiveness.
The Institute for the Study of War estimates that Ukrainian ATACMS is within the range of about 250 Russian military objectives, including 17 air bases.
The Army Tactical Missile System is a long-range missile system that frequently carries a variety of cluster bomblets. There are numerous variants of this system.
It is probable that Ukraine possesses M39A1 Block IA ATACMS, which are partially guided by the Global Positioning System and have a range of 70 to 300 km (40 to 190 miles). Their payload capacity is 300 bomblets. Army documents reveal that the M39 Block IA served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and joined the U.S. arsenal in 1997.
M57 ATACMS are also likely to be present in Ukraine, with the capability to deliver a single, 500-pound (230-kg) high-explosive warhead at a range of 70 to 300 km (40 to 190 miles). According to Army documents, the M57 was initially implemented in 2004 and has been deployed in several conflicts, including Operation Enduring Freedom.
