Ukraine Strikes Russia With Weapons Provided By U.S.

Ukraine has now used U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, according to foreign and domestic officials.

The weapons were deployed following recently updated guidance from the White House allowing American munitions to be fired from Ukraine into Russian territory.

Ukraine’s strike using U.S. weapons was confirmed to the Associated Press (AP) by an American senator and an unnamed Western official.

Though Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) confirmed the strikes to the outlet, he declined to state how he was briefed on the matter.

Ukrainian officials had increased pressure on the Biden administration to allow Kyiv’s military to defend themselves against attacks coming from Russian territory, the AP reported.

Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said this week that his military force destroyed Russian missile launchers during a strike in the Belgorod region, roughly 20 miles into Russia.

Chernev’s statements marked the first time a Ukrainian official publicly acknowledged Ukraine has used American weapons to fire at Russian targets since the White House lifted the ban on such strikes, The New York Times reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded, calling the attack with U.S. weapons a "dangerous step" and warning that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to others for strikes against Western targets.

During a briefing this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby would not confirm that Ukraine used weapons to fire at targets in Russia.

“As I said, we’re just not in a position on a day-to-day basis of knowing exactly what the Ukrainians are firing at what,” Kirby told reporters. “It’s certainly at a tactical level. So, I can’t confirm that. I can tell you that they understand the guidance that they’ve been given.”

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and an expert on the Russian military and modern warfare, told the Times that the range and precision of the attack on the missile launching systems suggested the weapon used was American.

“Given the range, type of target, munition availability and change in the Biden administration’s policy, I think it is probable this strike was conducted with HIMARS,” he said. 

HIMARS is an acronym for Lockheed Martin’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a missile launcher with a range of 50 miles, which is mounted on a five-ton truck that can rapidly fire as many as six guided missiles in quick succession.

The artillery system is said to be critical for Ukraine’s odds of winning the conflict with Russia.

“HIMARS is one of the world’s most advanced rocket artillery systems; its range is farther than anything the Ukrainians had, so when that was transferred they did get the ability to strike targets deeper behind the front-lines and much more accurately,” said Ian Williams, deputy director of CSIS’s Missile Defense Project.

The Institute for the Study of War’s daily report says that geolocated imagery confirms that “Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod,” likely with the HIMARS system.