NYT: U.S. Allows Ukraine To Use ATACMS To Strike Crimea

The Pentagon has named the targets.

The United States allowed Ukraine to use long-range (300 km) ATACMS missiles to strike military targets of the Russian occupation forces in temporarily captured Crimea.

The Ukrainian forces have already used this weapon twice, one was the strike on the Dzhankoi air base.

The New York Times writes about it, citing the U.S. Department of Defense representatives. One of the goals of transferring long-range systems to Kyiv is to put more pressure on Crimea.

“Ukrainian forces will be able to use the recently delivered coveted long-range missile system to more effectively defeat Russian forces in occupied Crimea,” a Pentagon representative told The New York Times.

According to the White House national security advisers, missile systems can penetrate deeper into the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and target the supply nodes of Russian troops in the southeast, the newspaper writes.

The goal of long-range systems is to put more pressure on Crimea, where Russian air and ground forces are concentrated, “where Russia currently has a relatively safe haven,” a senior defence ministry official told journalists.

The Pentagon refused to specify the exact number of long-range systems that were sent to Ukraine.

Also, the interlocutors of the publication said that Ukraine used ATACMS to strike at Russian troops in the port city of Berdiansk. Also, one of the targets was the airfield in Dzhankoi (Crimea).