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The United States secretly agreed to send a long-range missile system to Ukraine in February, reversing its decision to withhold weapons that some in the White House feared could dangerously escalate the war with Russia.
President Joe Biden’s decision to reverse course was influenced in part by Russia’s increased attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in recent months, as well as the Kremlin’s use of North Korean ballistic missiles, according to Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser.
Other U.S. officials said the Army’s tactical missile system, or Atacms, arrived in Ukraine last week. The Ukrainian army immediately used the system to attack an airfield in Crimea and a position of Russian troops.
The United States did not announce at the time its decision to maintain Ukraine’s operational security at kyiv’s request, the officials said. The mailing was first reported by Politico.
“We’ve already sent some, we’ll send more now that we have additional authority and money,” Sullivan acknowledged, citing the new $61 billion military aid package Biden signed Wednesday. “I believe they will make a difference.”
Although the United States has sent shorter-range Atacms systems to Ukraine in the past, the most recent delivery is the first time it has agreed to transfer artillery capable of traveling 190 miles – a distance that would allow for the Ukrainian army to strike deep into Russian territory. .
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine’s use of the new Atacms showed the United States wanted to “increase Zelensky’s terrorist potential.”
Sullivan said he did not believe the new deliveries could escalate the conflict, arguing it was an appropriate response to increasing Russian attacks with long-range North Korean missiles.
“We think it’s appropriate,” Sullivan said. “We think it’s a good capability in this phase of the conflict.”
In addition to U.S. concerns that the system could escalate the war, the Pentagon had also raised objections because it feared the deployment to Ukraine would deplete its own stocks of Atacms, which it needs for military readiness on other critical theaters.
The Pentagon resolved that issue in January, a U.S. official said, saying the U.S. military was able to “find a solution to alleviate readiness issues by acquiring new Atacms coming off the production line.”
Although the long-range Atacms have been coveted by the Ukrainian government for months, Sullivan warned that they would not immediately change the course of the war.
“There is no silver bullet in this conflict,” he said during a White House press briefing. “A single capability will not be the ultimate solution; it is an amalgam of capabilities combined with the courage and skills of Ukrainian fighters that will make the difference in this conflict.”
Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Riga