The Biden administration has made it clear that long-range weapons provided by it to Ukraine are not to be used against targets in Russia. A U.S. statement making it clear that it neither encourages nor enables such attack. The remark comes a day after a Ukrainian Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) strike on a Russian Air Force Base in Belbek in Crimea, purported satellite images released after the attack show that two MiG-31s and a Sukhoi-27 were destroyed in the Ukrainian attack. There are also claims that a Russian S-300 or S-400 air defence missile system was destroyed in the attack. Russia has neither accepted nor denied an attack on the air base.
The Biden administration was initially hesitant to provide such a potent long-range weapon to Ukraine, as they suspected that such weapons may be used to hit targets deep inside Russia provoking a much harsher retaliation from Putin and thereby escalating the war. Ukraine was initially provided with a 165 km ranged version of the weapon and it was only in April that the Americans provided a 300 km ranged version to the Ukrainians. The ATACMS can be fired from either the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS) both provided to Ukraine by the West.
Ukraine also uses the Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG missiles which have been integrated with Ukrainian Sukhoi-24s and can hit targets as far as 550 km away. The United Kingdom, unlike the Americans, has given Ukraine permission to use the weapon system to hit targets inside Russian territory. The Ukrainians have used the Storm Shadow missile to hit the rail bridge that connects Russia and Crimea. Germany has refused to provide Ukraine with the similar Taurus missile, having a range of nearly 500km, over fears that Kyiv might use it to hit targets in Russia.
One of the reasons for the recent Russian offensive in the Kharkiv oblast of Ukraine is said to be to create a buffer zone which would end Ukrainian artillery strikes on populated areas near the border. The Russians could in some regions try to create a buffer or carry out retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian targets in depth thereby widening the scope or intensifying the conflict.
Dhruv Yadav
