The Biden administration has said it will send a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, a key weapon Ukrainian leaders have been craving as they try to stop Russia’s progress in the Donbas region.
The rocket system is part of $700 million in new U.S. security assistance to Ukraine that includes helicopters, the Javelin anti-tank weapon system, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The aid package will be officially announced on Wednesday.
The U.S. has decided to provide advanced rocket systems and is trying to strike a balance between helping Ukraine counter fierce Russian artillery and not supplying weapons that could escalate the war by allowing Ukraine to strike deep Russian targets.
In a guest article for The New York Times on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden confirmed that he has decided to “provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will allow them to more precisely strike targets on the Ukrainian battlefield. key goals”.
Biden said on Monday that the U.S. would not provide Ukraine with “a rocket system that could hit Russia.”
Any weapon system can enter Russia if it is close enough to the border. The aid package, expected to be unveiled Wednesday, will include what China considers medium-range rockets, which can typically travel 70 kilometers (45 miles), officials said.
The Ukrainians have assured U.S. officials that they will not fire rockets into Russian territory, according to senior officials. An official noted that the advanced rocket system would allow Ukrainian forces to more precisely target Russian assets in Ukraine.
Ukraine is expected to use rockets in the eastern Donbass region, which they can use to both intercept Russian artillery and destroy Russian positions in heavily-fighting towns such as Severo Donetsk.
Severo Donetsk is important to Russia’s efforts to occupy the Donbass until more Western weapons arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. The city, 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Russian border, is the last place under the control of the Ukrainian government in the Luhansk region of Donbas.
In the New York Times article, Biden added: “We do not encourage or allow Ukraine to attack beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
This is the 11th package the U.S. has approved so far and will be the first to take advantage of the $40 billion in security and economic aid that Congress recently passed. The rocket systems will be part of the Pentagon’s grant authority, and thus involve the process of removing weapons from U.S. stockpiles and quickly getting them into Ukraine. The Ukrainian army also needs to train soldiers to use the new system, which could take at least one to two weeks.
The plan is to send Ukraine the High Mobility Multiple Rocket System (HIMARS), which is mounted on a truck and carries a container with six rockets, officials said. The system can fire medium-range rockets, which are currently equipped, but can also fire long-range missiles, the Army Tactical Missile System, which has a range of about 300 kilometers (190 miles), which is not covered by the aid program.
Since the war began in February, the U.S. and its allies have tried to follow a narrow line: supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs to push back Russia, but not supply that would anger Russian President Vladimir Putin and put the rest of Europe into a more difficult position. Aid for widespread conflict.
Over time, however, the U.S. and allies have strengthened their weapons attributes into Ukraine, and the battle has shifted from a large-scale campaign involving Russia’s capture of the capital, Kyiv, and other regions, to a small-scale engagement over small tracts of land in the east and south.
To this end, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been imploring the West to send multiple sets of launch vehicle systems to Ukraine as soon as possible to help stop Russia’s destruction of Donbas towns.