Biden Will Soon Approve the Transfer of ATACMS to Ukraine

United States President Joe Biden will soon make the final decision on sending ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine.

This is reported by CNN.

This is an important step recommended by the State Department and the Department of Defence after several months of requests from Ukraine.

According to the sources, discussions about the shipment of the Army's ATACMS long-range tactical missile systems have intensified significantly in recent weeks. No final decision has been made to send the missiles, but "the likelihood of this happening is much higher now than before. I just don't know when the delivery will start," said one official familiar with the discussions.

U.S. officials have been reticent to send long-range surface-to-surface guided missiles because of concerns about escalating the conflict as they could potentially be fired into Russian territory. However, this concern has largely diminished as Ukraine has shown that it does not use other US-provided weapons to attack territory inside Russia.

Ukraine has conducted strikes on Russian territory using its own drones and weapons, allowing Kyiv to honour its commitment not to use US weapons to strike targets in Russia.

Currently, the maximum range of US weapons provided to Ukraine is approximately 150 km with a small-diameter ground bomb. ATACMS, which have a range of about 300 km, will allow the Ukrainian military to hit targets at twice that distance.

The publication notes that the United States is close to supplying Ukraine with ATACMS amid months of requests from Ukraine. Previously, the US had resisted the delivery of Patriot air defence systems, Abrams tanks and cluster munitions, all of which were eventually provided to Kyiv.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he plans to speak with Biden again on the subject and that Ukraine hopes to receive ATACMS "in the autumn". Last week, Zelenskyy met for several hours in Kyiv with the top US diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

It is unclear how many of the missiles the US will ultimately provide, but State Department and Pentagon officials believe that sending the missiles could help Ukraine make gains in its current counteroffensive, which has been slow to make decisive progress.

More recently, defence officials have been wary of providing a system that the US lacks in its own permanent stockpile. Some Pentagon officials have argued that the number of missiles the US has in its arsenal is classified, but that providing the hundreds of missiles requested by Ukraine could undermine US military readiness.

Lockheed Martin, which manufactures ATACMS, currently produces about 500 units a year to fulfil current US Army contracts, a company spokesman said. However, many of these systems have already been transferred to US allies, including Ukraine.