The US Department of Defense (DoD) press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, confirmed that the government will not provide long-range strike capabilities to Ukraine for use against targets deep inside Russia.
“Our policies haven’t changed,” he stated in a media briefing yesterday (27 August).
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“You’ve heard us say that the Ukrainians can use US security assistance to defend themselves from cross-border attacks, in other words counterfire. But as it relates to long-range strike, deep strikes into Russia, our policy has not changed.”
Ryder’s comments shut down mounting pressure from the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week in which the head of state urged Western backers – including the US, the war-torn nation’s largest supplier of military assistance – to provide long-range weapons.
One reason Zelenskyy gave for Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, now in its fourth week, is to compensate for its lack of deep strike capabilities. To date, Ukrainian forces have claimed more than a thousand square kilometres of Russian territory while capturing nearly 600 Russian troops in the process.
To date, the US has provided numerous missile defence systems from artillery, bomb launchers, rockets and mortars. The DoD have even provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) – with an extended range of up to 300 kilometres – while prohibiting their use inside Russia.
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By GlobalDataIn addition, Ukraine was also gifted long-range British and French Storm Shadow/SCALP missile systems provided last year, which have a range of 250 kilometres. However, more must be done in this area to secure Ukrainian territory from Russian strikes.
Nevertheless, US refusal has not deterred the country from obtaining the coveted weapon system for deep strike use. Zelenskyy revealed this week that Ukraine’s indigenous defence industry has successfully produced its own home-built ballistic missile, named the ‘Palianytsia’ – a long-range missile-drone hybrid system.
“It shows that if the West will not supply deep-strike weapons, Ukraine will develop their own”, says Wilson Jones, defence analyst at GlobalData. “Although these are usually more expensive to design and build, Ukraine can make that work if the rest of their defence platforms are being supplied from abroad”.
