The White House confirmed for the first time on Monday that it authorized Ukraine to launch US-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) into Russia, an escalation Russia has made clear risks nuclear war.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US “did change the guidance” for Ukraine to allow ATACMS strikes on Russian territory, including in the Kursk Oblast, where Russia is gradually pushing out an invading Ukrainian force.
“They are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis. And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk Oblast,” Kirby said.
The New York Times first reported last week that President Biden authorized Ukraine to fire ATACMS, which have a range of about 190 miles, into Russian territory. Two days later, Ukraine fired ATACMS into Russia’s Bryansk Oblast.
Unconfirmed reports from Ukrainian military bloggers say Ukraine struck a Russian airfield in Kursk on Sunday night with a cluster bomb ATACMS, which are an older variant and have a shorter range than the newer version. Cluster bombs spread small submunitions over large areas and can leave duds behind that civilians can come across years after the conflict. They have been banned by more than 100 countries due to their indiscriminate nature, but the US has poured them into Ukraine.
Russia has said that the authorization of ATACMS strikes on Russian territory means the US is now directly at war with Russia since Ukraine needs intelligence from the US to fire the missiles. Ukraine has also been given the green light to use British-provided Storm Shadow missiles in strikes on Russia and the French variant, known as SCALP missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he believes Russia now has the right to strike the military facilities of countries supplying such missiles to Ukraine. “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said last week. “If anyone else doubts this, then they are wrong – there will always be a response.”
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile into Ukraine in response to ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles being used on Russian territory. Putin also formalized changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine in response to the US escalation that lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.