Ukraine war: US-supplied weapons proving successful inside Russia – ‘we can do a lot’

Weeks after the decision allowing Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons for limited strikes in Russian territory, the country is having some success in halting Russia’s new push along the northeast front, but military commanders are clamouring for restrictions on long-range missiles to be lifted.

Deteriorating battlefield conditions forced the US to permit Ukraine to use Western-supplied artillery and rocket systems to defend the eastern city of Kharkiv by targeting border regions where the Kremlin’s forces assemble and launch attacks. The impact was swift: Ukrainian forces pushed Russian positions back, won time to better fortify their own positions, and even mounted small offensive actions.

But commanders said that without the ability to use long-range guided missiles, such as ATACMS, their hands are tied.

“We could target [Russian] brigade command points and the entire northern grouping, because they are located 100 to 150 kilometres from the front line,” said Hefastus, an artillery commander in the Kharkiv region who goes by his call sign. “Normal ammunition can’t get at them. With this kind, we can do a lot to destroy their centres of command.”

The Ukrainian commanders interviewed spoke on condition that their callsigns be used, in line with brigade rules.

The US expanded the scope of its policy to allow counterstrikes across a wider region on Friday. But the Biden administration has not lifted restrictions on Ukraine that prohibit the use of US-provided ATACMS to strike inside Russian territory, according to three US officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly. The US began providing Ukraine with long-range ATACMS earlier this year, but with rules, including that they cannot be used to strike inside Russia and must be used within sovereign territory, which includes land seized by the Russians.