Ukraine Fires ATACMS Missiles at Russian Forces for the First Time
WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
U.S. missiles were secretly deployed to Ukraine in recent days
Updated Oct. 17, 2023
Ukraine launched ATACMS missiles at Russian forces on Tuesday, marking the first time that the U.S.-provided weapons have been used since Moscow invaded the country.
A small number of the missiles have been secretly sent to Ukraine in recent days, where they will augment Kyiv’s capability to carry out long-range strikes at Russian forces during an important stage of its counteroffensive, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ukraine has long sought ATACMS, a surface-to-surface missile that can be fired by the Himars, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, the U.S. first provided last year.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military’s communication department said on the Telegram messaging app that it “made well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields and helicopters near the temporarily occupied Luhansk and Berdyansk.”
The ATACMS models that were provided have a range of about 100 miles.
The U.S. decision to send the ATACMS, which stands for the Army Tactical Missile System, has been long in the making. Ukraine repeatedly said the missiles were essential to its war plan, giving it the range it needed to strike targets behind the front lines in Russian-held Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said the attacks caused dozens of Russian casualties and destroyed nine Russian helicopters, an air defense launcher and an ammunition depot. It said the military struck the two airfields after receiving intelligence that Russia was using them as a major base for aircraft, military hardware and ammunition in the occupied territories.
Ukraine hasn’t officially confirmed the use of ATACMS. But in a speech posted to social media on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at the use of the new weapons provided to Ukraine.
“I thank those who are destroying at scale the logistics and bases of the occupiers of our land. We have results,” he said. “I thank certain partners of ours: effective weapons, just as we agreed.”
Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, said that long-range strikes against Russian air bases are a crucial part of Ukraine’s broader strategy of weakening Russian forces as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive.
Such strikes, he said, will force the Russian military to keep its helicopters farther from the front. As a result, Russian helicopters would need to fly farther to reach the front lines, which would diminish their ability to apply firepower and give Ukrainian forces more time to track those flights.
The U.S. decision to send the ATACMS has been the subject of public debate for more than a year. U.S. lawmakers repeatedly pressed the White House to provide the weapons. The decision by Britain and France to provide longer-range cruise missiles to Ukraine earlier this year also raised questions about why the White House wasn’t willing to take a similar step.
At first, the Biden administration held back from providing the missiles because it was worried they might be used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, risking a direct U.S.-Russia clash.
The Pentagon was so concerned about the risk of escalation that it initially had the Himars rocket launchers it provided to Ukraine modified so they couldn’t be used to fire ATACMS missiles should Kyiv acquire them from other sources.
Ukraine sought to ease those concerns by vowing it wouldn’t use American-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Kyiv also had a record in honoring similar pledges with the cruise missiles Britain and France provided.
Yet after the administration’s worries over escalation faded, the Pentagon expressed concern that supplying ATACMS would eat into stockpiles of the weapons it needed for its war plans against future threats.
This summer, the administration’s attitude began to change when it was apparent that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was moving slowly in the face of formidable Russian defenses and U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan asked what other military support Washington might provide.
President Biden’s decision in July to send cluster munitions to Ukraine also facilitated the ATACMS decision. The U.S. has a cluster-munition variant of the missile called APAM, which stands for anti-personnel, anti-materiel, that didn’t figure as prominently as other ATACMS models in the U.S. war plans.
On Aug. 10, the National Security Council staff drafted a memo outlining a number of options to help Ukraine’s forces, and noted the APAM variant could have a significant effect on the battlefield.
On Aug. 30, the council’s principals committee, a cabinet-level body led by Sullivan, recommended unanimously that the weapon be provided.
When Zelensky visited Washington in late September, Biden told the Ukrainian president he was willing to provide ATACMS missiles to help with Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
领英推荐
The first use of ATACMS comes as the counteroffensive, aimed at bisecting Russian occupying forces in the south of the country, is making only incremental advances. Ukrainian forces in August penetrated Russia’s main defensive line, but have been unable to achieve a large-scale breakthrough.
Last week, Russia launched an offensive in the east aimed at surrounding the small industrial town of Avdiivka, apparently calculating that it had manpower to spare and that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had run out of steam.
+++++++++++++
IDF: Next stage of fighting might not be ground offensive
Former CIA director David Petraeus compared a ground offensive in Gaza to the fight against ISIS in Mosul.
By REUTERS, JERUSALEM POST STAFF - OCTOBER 17, 2023
The Israeli military is getting ready for the next phase of its campaign against the Gaza Strip but plans may not conform to widespread expectations of an imminent ground offensive, the IDF's International spokesperson said on Tuesday.
"We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven't said what they will be. Everybody's talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different," Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht told a regular briefing with reporters.
Hecht's comments came as Israeli forces continued to prepare to expand the offensive against Hamas after its deadly assault on southern Israel last week.
As the region and the world continues to wait to see how the IDF will move forward, analysts and leaders have noted a series of challenges a ground offensive would face and have warned that Israel must think of what to do after 'defanging' Hamas.
Former CIA director urges Israel to consider 'day after'
Former CIA director and retired US Army Gen. David Petraeus noted in an interview with CBS News on Monday that Gaza City is similar in size to Mosul, Iraq, which was an ISIS stronghold, and that Israel could face similar challenges if it enters Gaza.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu would be well-advised to not only say what they are going to try to do to Hamas,” former Army General David Petraeus says, but also lay out a plan for the future of Gaza, ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion of the territory.invasion of the territory."
Petraeus added that Hamas will have booby-trapped much of Gaza in anticipation of a ground offensive. "If the mission is to destroy Hamas, which is what we've heard, that's a military term, it means doctrinally that you have to render the enemy incapable of accomplishing his mission without reconstitution."
"If you go in, at some point in time, if you're going to destroy every one of these headquarters, bases, facilities, capture or kill the senior leaders and do the same with the rank and file, true extremists, think about what that requires."
"A similar sized population, Mosul, when the Islamic State occupied it in northern Iraq, and ISIS is a good analogy here for what Hamas has done, it took nine months to clear that, Israel doesn't have nine months obviously," said Petraeus.
The former CIA director stressed to CBS News that Israel needs to think of the post-conflict goals as well. The military is probably also saying 'and then what? How did that work out in Iraq?'"
"I was a two-star (general officer), I remember asking before we went to Baghdad 'excuse me, could we have a little more detail on what happens after we get to Baghdad and topple the regime,' and they said 'you just get us to Baghdad, they will take it from there.' We obviously had done inadequate post-conflict. There needs to be a vision for that. I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu would be well advised to not only say what they're going to try to do to Hamas, but also to talk about the future of Gaza and the future of the Palestinian people."
"They don't want to reoccupy, but if you don't reoccupy, Hamas will reconstitute. So you're going to go through an enormous loss, casualties, and then you're just going to leave? I'm sure they're searching for that answer."
The End++++++++++++++++++++++