White House mulls providing Ukraine with ATACMS with a longer range — media

NBC News reports this with reference to two unnamed US officials.

In October 2023, the United States began supplying Ukraine with ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles. However, these were older, medium-range versions, and now Washington is leaning towards sending longer-range missiles, which will allow the Ukrainian military to strike deep into the occupied Crimean peninsula, the NBC News sources said.

At the same time, Pentagon officials told NBC News that the United States has a limited supply of ATACMS and is unlikely to send them to Ukraine without money to replenish US stocks.

According to two US officials, if Congress approves increased funding for Ukraine, the US could include the long-range ATACMS in one of the first military aid packages to be funded with the money.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Defence confirmed that without a new bill to fund the aid, Washington would not be able to provide Ukraine with weapons.

“We will let you know if that changes and if we have a new package to announce,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, US funding for new arms supplies to Ukraine remains uncertain due to opposition from Republicans in the House of Representatives. For several months, pro-Trump Republicans have said they would only approve military aid to Ukraine if the Biden administration agrees to the GOP's immigration enforcement package.

This month, however, Trump and his allies in the House and Senate rejected a bipartisan compromise bill to secure the border while providing aid to Ukraine and other US partners.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said that he spent most of his meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Munich on February 17 discussing the need for longer-range weapons.

“I spent a lot of time arguing in favour of ATACMS,” he said.

According to the minister, Ukraine needs a version of the missile that can fly over 300 kilometres.

“If you want to hit the [Russian] rear, disrupt their logistics and supplies, destroy their ammunition depots, you can only do it with long-range missiles,” he explained.

ATACMS for Ukraine

For the past two years, the Joe Biden administration has been reluctant to send long-range missiles, fearing that Ukraine would use them to strike Crimea or Russia, leading to an escalation.

However, in September 2023, NBC News reported, citing three US officials and a congressional official, that the White House had promised Ukraine a small batch of ATACMS. Subsequently, the US President confirmed this information, and on October 17, Ukraine's military and political leadership officially announced that Ukraine had received the first long-awaited ATACMS missiles and had successfully used them.

The transfer of missiles became known after the attack on the night of October 17: Ukrainian defence forces attacked Russian aircraft and other equipment at airfields near occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk. The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces reported that they destroyed 9 Russian helicopters, special equipment, an air defence launcher, an ammunition depot, and damaged the runways of the airfields. In addition, the enemy suffered dozens of dead and wounded.

According to the New York Times, the United States has delivered about 20 long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine.

ATACMS is a tactical ballistic missile manufactured by the US defence company Lockheed Martin. The ATACMS missiles can be mounted on the M270 MLRS (two missiles) or HIMARS (one missile) systems that Ukraine already has. Until now, Ukraine has been supplied with GMLRS missiles for HIMARS. The range of the ATACMS is up to 300 kilometres.