Ukraine uses secretly shipped U.S. missiles to launch surprise strike

Source: Politico | October 17, 2023 | Lara Seligman, Paul McLeary, Alexander Ward and Veronika Melkozerova

The delivery and use on the battlefield marks a major ramp up of the administration’s defense of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military on Tuesday used U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles to strike nine Russian helicopters in eastern Ukraine, after Washington secretly shipped the weapons in recent weeks.

The delivery and use on the battlefield, confirmed by two people familiar with the move, marks a major ramp up of the administration’s defense of Ukraine, for the first time providing Kyiv’s forces with the ability to strike Russian targets far behind the front lines.

President Joe Biden had been hesitant to deliver the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, for fear of escalating the conflict. The transfer indicates the administration’s calculus has changed after a slow-moving Ukrainian counteroffensive. The two people who confirmed the transfer and usage in Ukraine were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news that the missile had been transferred and used.

The acknowledgment that the ATACMS are in Ukrainian hands and already in use comes after months of secrecy around Biden’s decision to send the longer-range weapons. Ukraine announced Tuesday that its forces had destroyed nine Russian helicopters, as well as other military equipment, in an attack on the cities of Berdyansk and Luhansk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian special forces early on Tuesday struck two Russian military airfields, saying they successfully destroyed nine Russian military helicopters, an anti-aircraft missile system, and an ammunition warehouse.

The attacks took place in occupied Berdyansk, a southern city in the Zaporizhzhia region; and at an airfield in Luhansk, an occupied city in eastern Ukraine.

The special forces also managed to successfully damage airfield runways, Ukraine said, in what it called “Operation Dragonfly.”

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