White House considers providing Ukraine with ATACMS missiles this fall - WSJ

Joe Biden's administration is exploring supplying Ukraine with ATACMS missiles this fall to support the Ukrainian armed forces' counteroffensive.

Source. The Wall Street Journal writes about this with reference to White House officials.

Although this type of weapon will not help break through Russian defenses, Washington hopes that it will allow strikes on warehouses, supply centers, and command posts in the rear, which Russia needs to maintain the occupied territories.

The Ukrainian government and military have repeatedly called on the United States to provide them with long-range missiles, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently told CNN that he intends to raise the issue again when he meets with Joe Biden during his visit to Washington next week.

ATACMS has a range of 160 to 300 kilometers.

According to WSJ sources, the plan under consideration is to transfer a limited number of ATACMS to Ukraine, which should alleviate the Pentagon's concerns about maintaining its own combat readiness.

Six months ago, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that the United States "doesn't have a lot of ATACMS and we need to make sure we have enough of our own."

According to the Ukrainian military, the British long-range Storm Shadow missiles launched from aircraft cannot completely replace ATACMS, as the latter are mounted on mobile ground systems and are better suited to hit the necessary targets behind enemy lines.

Background. As reported, the US is setting up a group to monitor the use of US aid in Ukraine.