The United States secretly transferred ATACMS to Ukraine

The United States secretly transferred ATACMS to Ukraine

The United States sent ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine back in March 2024. Since the beginning of April, the Ukrainian military has already used these weapons twice against targets behind Russian lines.

The information was officially confirmed by Deputy Head of the US State Department Vedant Patel at a briefing on Wednesday, April 24. According to him, the decision on this was made by US President Joe Biden in February.

“Yes, I can confirm that the United States has provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles at the direction of the President,” he said.

A representative of the American department noted that the supplies were not announced in Washington “to ensure the operational security of Ukraine at its request.”

Patel clarified that Biden in February gave an unspoken order to the White House security team to send ATACMS to the Ukrainian side for use on the sovereign territory of Ukraine.

We are talking about missiles with a range of about 200 miles (300 km). This is twice as many as the medium-range missiles Kyiv received from Washington in October 2023.

The American publications AP and Politico, citing sources in the Biden administration, write that the Ukrainian Defence Forces used long-range missiles twice: on April 17 against a Russian military base in Russian-occupied Crimea, and recently against Russian troops east of occupied Berdyansk in the Zaporizhzhya region.

American journalist Natasha Bertrand later wrote on her social network account X that Pentagon spokesman Garron Garn also officially confirmed this information. According to him, ATACMS missiles were secretly included in the $300 million aid package to Ukraine, which the White House announced on March 12. As a result, the weapons were delivered to Ukraine in early April.

The AP publication noted that we are talking about a “significant number” of ATACMS missiles being transferred to Ukraine, but journalists did not give a specific figure.

One US official said the Biden administration warned Russia last year that if Moscow acquired and used long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capabilities to Kyiv.

Russia received and used some of these weapons from North Korea, prompting the White House to greenlight new long-range missiles.

One of the deciding factors in the March decision to ship the weapon was the US Army’s ability to begin replacing older ATACMS systems. The Army is now purchasing Precision Strike Missiles, so it is more convenient to remove ATACMS from the shelves and transfer them to Ukraine, the official said.