U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday his administration will send more advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine to counter Russia’s latest advances in the ongoing war.
In a guest essay published in the New York Times, Biden said the U.S. is committed to supplying Ukraine with enough weapons and ammunition to fight on the battlefield and retain a strong position in negotiations with Moscow.
“That’s why I’ve decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine,” the president wrote.
Government officials later told reporters that the U.S. will be sending the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which are considered medium-to-long-range systems that can fire missiles about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the plans.
Biden told reporters on Monday that the U.S. would not be sending Ukraine missile systems that can reach Russia. But because the most intense fighting is currently in the eastern Donbas region, any weapon system — particularly missiles — has the potential to enter Russian territory if they are fired close enough to the border.
The U.S. officials said Ukraine has offered assurances that the weapons will not be used against targets in Russian territory.
Ukraine pleads for more weapons amid ongoing Russian onslaught
The expectation is that Ukraine could use the rockets in the Donbas, where they could both intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in towns where fighting is intense, such as Sievierodonetsk.
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Sievierodonetsk is important to Russian efforts to capture the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defense. The city, which is 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of the Russian border, is in an area that is the last pocket under Ukrainian government control in the Luhansk region of the Donbas. Russian officials have claimed a majority of the city as of Tuesday.
Biden in his New York Times’ essay added: “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
The rocket systems are set to be included in a new aid package that will be announced Wednesday.
U.S. officials familiar with the decision did not detail how much the aid will cost, but it will be the 11th package approved so far, and will be the first to tap the US$40 billion in assistance recently passed by Congress.
The rocket systems would be part of Pentagon drawdown authority, so would involve taking weapons from U.S. inventory and getting them into Ukraine quickly. Ukrainian troops would also need training on the new systems, which could take at least a week or two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pleading with the West to send multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine as soon as possible to help stop Russia’s destruction of towns in the Donbas. The rockets have a longer range than the howitzer artillery systems that the U.S. has provided Ukraine, and would allow Ukrainian forces to strike Russian troops from a distance outside the range of Russia’s artillery systems.
“We are fighting for Ukraine to be provided with all the weapons needed to change the nature of the fighting and start moving faster and more confidently toward the expulsion of the occupiers,” Zelenskyy said in a recent address.
—With files from the Associated Press
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