Ukraine could hit Vladimir Putin’s airfields deep inside Russia with new long-range missiles supplied by America, military experts said on Thursday.
US officials disclosed that the covertly supplied missiles had already been deployed for the first time to bomb a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight.
"We've already sent some, we will send more now that we have additional authority and money," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said after Congress finally approved a new aid package that includes more deliveries of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
Its first use by Ukraine last week was said to be limited in scope but the system gives the country’s armed forces much further reach of up to 300 kilometres (190 miles), nearly double the striking distance of a mid-range version that they received from the United States last October.
The Institute for the Study of War said: “The arrival of long-range ATACMS missiles in sufficient quantities will allow Ukrainian forces to degrade Russian logistics and threaten Russian airfields in deep rear areas, although months of delay may have provided the Russian military time to offset the potential operational impacts that ATACMS will afford Ukraine.”
The new US package, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine, was held up by months of bickering among Republicans in the House of Representatives before it was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
The deployment comes after Rishi Sunak announced a £500 million package of UK military aid to Ukraine and committed to long-term support as part of a move to dramatically increase Britain’s defence budget.
Ukraine’s allies should now “pile the pressure” on Vladimir Putin, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said on an unannounced visit to Kyiv. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky told Mr Hunt that the UK support was “crucial”.
Mr Biden approved delivery of ATACMS to Ukraine in February and a "significant" number of the missiles were included in a package a month later, US officials said.
But information about the delivery was kept quiet. US lawmakers kept up a clamour in recent days for Washington to send the weapons — not knowing they were already deployed in Ukraine.
The Biden administration had held them back, sending the mid-range version instead, for fear of antagonising the Putin regime and causing the conflict to escalate.
But amid warnings that Russia could turn the tide in the war without decisive changes in the type of supplies sent to Ukraine, US Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman Christopher Grady said it was right to send them now.
The ATACMS missiles will be "very disruptive if used properly, and I'm confident they will be”, he told The Associated Press in an interview.
