(Kyiv) Ukraine used American long-range ATACMS missiles against Russia for the first time, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Tuesday.
“The agreements we reached with the president [Joe] Biden are being implemented. They are implemented in a very precise manner: the ATACMS have proven themselves,” Mr. Zelensky said in his daily speech broadcast on social networks.
The Ukrainian head of state, however, did not specify where or when his army had used these missiles.
“The White House’s decision to send long-range missiles to the Ukrainians is a serious mistake. The consequences of this measure, which was deliberately hidden from the public, will be very serious,” responded the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, in a press release.
Washington, for its part, assured that these ATACMS, with a maximum range of 165 kilometers, would “significantly boost” the capabilities of the Ukrainian military and “give them […] the ability to strike deep into the Russian rear lines.
Targeted aerodromes
The official announcement of the arrival of the ATACMS in Ukraine comes at the same time as Russian sources assured that the Ukrainian army had used these long-range surface-to-surface missiles during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Vladimir Rogov, an official of the administration set up by the Russians in the Zaporizhia region, in Ukraine, had stated on Telegram that “M74 cluster submunitions from the American ATACMS missile had been found in Berdiansk”.
The official was referring to a Ukrainian nighttime strike on the airfield of this city in southeastern Ukraine.
Indeed, earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian special forces claimed to have carried out destructive strikes overnight on two Russian army airfields, in Luhansk and Berdyansk, in areas occupied by Russia.
The operation called “Dragonfly” resulted in the destruction of takeoff runways, nine helicopters, an anti-aircraft system and an ammunition warehouse, according to a statement published on Telegram by Ukrainian special forces.
They did not broadcast images of these bombings or their results. The Russian army has not yet made any comments, but Moscow very rarely discusses its own losses.
The Telegram channels Rybar and WarGonzo, close to the Russian army, for their part, reported an attack using ATACMS missiles on an airfield in Berdiansk, without being able to specify the extent of the damage.
Russian missile strikes on the town of Zaporizhia, in southeastern Ukraine, left one person dead and several injured, local authorities reported on Wednesday.
” Tonight [mercredi]between 1:33 a.m. and 1:48 a.m. (10:33 p.m. to 6:48 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday),” Russia fired “six missiles at the city of Zaporizhia,” regional governor Yuriï wrote on Telegram Malachko, reporting at this stage one dead and at least two injured.
The secretary of the city’s municipal council, Anatolyi Kourtev, also indicated a few minutes later that Zaporizhia had been targeted, specifying that “an apartment building was destroyed by an enemy missile strike”.
“Effective” weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, without mentioning this specific case, welcomed earlier Tuesday the fact that his forces managed to strike Russian supply lines, at a time when they are engaged in a very difficult counter-offensive to liberate the occupied territories.
“I am grateful to those who destroy the logistics and bases of the occupier on our territory,” he said in a statement also thanking his Western allies who delivered “effective” weapons.
Ukraine has been insisting for months that Europeans and Americans increase deliveries of longer-range missiles in order to be able to strike the Russians far behind the front and thus disrupt their logistics chain.
But, so far, the West has only given a limited number of these munitions, fearing that Ukraine could use them to attack Russian territory directly as it already does with its own drones.