A few days after the Biden administration took office Permission granted Kiev used its new freedom to prevent Ukraine from launching U.S. weapons at Russia, striking a military facility on the border with a U.S.-made artillery system, a member of Ukraine’s parliament said.
Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's national security, defense and intelligence committee, said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces launched an attack in the Belgorod region, about 20 miles from Russia, destroying Russian missile launchers. He said Ukrainian troops used the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
It was the first time Ukrainian officials publicly acknowledged that Ukraine had used U.S. weapons to fire at Russia since President Biden lifted a ban on such strikes, which for months had been a red line that the Biden administration would not cross for fear of heightened tensions with the nuclear-armed nation.
The Ukrainian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States imposed restrictions when it approved the missile deployment last week, saying the weapons could only be used on Russian territory near northeastern Ukraine and only for defensive purposes. Chernev said in a text message that Ukraine destroyed the S-300 and S-400 missile systems, but did not specify how many. Russia used the systems, originally designed to shoot down aircraft, to bomb the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, just 45 miles from Belgorod.
The HIMARS used by Ukraine is a US-made long-range rocket system with a launch range that exceeds the range of most of Ukraine's non-Western weapons.
Mr. Chernev’s account of the attack could not be independently verified. But video footage emerged on Monday of the aftermath of the attacks on the S-300 and S-400 systems. Satellite images and social media posts suggest that multiple attacks took place inside Russia over the weekend.
Chernev, a former Ukrainian military man, currently heads Ukraine's delegation to NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, a position that allows him to participate in discussions with Western partners on the supply and use of Western weapons.
A video on a Russian Telegram channel showed burning Russian military equipment and billowing gray smoke following Sunday's attack. videoConfirmed by the New York Times, Recorded Satellite images taken by Planet Labs at the location just outside Belgorod showed smoke rising from what appeared to be destroyed vehicles. At least one of the launchers was in an elevated position at the time of the attack.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and an expert on the Russian military and modern warfare, said the scope and precision of the attack on the missile launch system indicated the weapons used were American.
“Given the range, target type, ammunition availability, and the change in Biden Administration policy, I believe it is likely that this attack was conducted using the HIMARS system,” he wrote in a text message.
Russian blogger, Researchers analyze satellite images and footage of battlefields and Russian Ministry of Defense There have been reports of multiple U.S. rocket strikes inside Russia since the Biden administration authorized their use on Thursday.
On Saturday, Russian state television war correspondent Yevgeny Podubny Share photo The debris is said to be fragments of a US guided rocket and was found in Russia. It is currently impossible to independently verify when and where the debris was found.
Military analysts have been watching to see when and how Ukraine uses U.S. weapons on Russian territory.
Ukraine has been actively lobbying Western allies for weeks to allow it to use weapons to attack Russia. It says Russian troops are massing on the border, ready to attack Ukraine with impunity. It also points to the urgent need to be able to shoot down aircraft dropping so-called glide bombs from Russian territory towards Ukrainian targets, as well as to strike Russian military bases, command posts and ammunition depots.
“We use every meeting, every day, to provide our fighters with more possibilities,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a letter. Telegram Post Tuesday. “I am grateful to all of our partners who have stepped up to help in the ways we needed.”
Military analysts say Ukraine's newfound ability to strike Russia will help slow Moscow's cross-border attacks.
“Now we can strike Russian troops at the stage of formation, thereby reducing the possibility that they will prepare a new offensive at other points along the border,” said Mihaylo Samus, director of the Center for Army Reconstruction and Disarmament Studies, a military research institute in Kyiv.
Russia has repeatedly warned Ukraine's Western allies that allowing attacks on Russian territory would have serious consequences. “We want to warn American officials against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei A. Ryabkov said on Monday, according to Russian news agencies. “For some unknown reason, they underestimated the severity of the possible response.”
Russia has not yet specified what those consequences would be, but President Vladimir V. Putin last week issued a veiled threat to smaller European countries, noting that they are “very densely populated.”
Mr. Chernev’s confirmation that American weapons had been used in attacks inside Russia was the only confirmation Ukraine has made so far, perhaps out of fear of fueling Russian propaganda and stoking more belligerence in Russia. Ukraine is also preparing a diplomatic initiative in Switzerland later this month to lay out a plan to resolve the war.
John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the United States would not reconsider its policy of prohibiting deep strikes against Russia in recent weeks. The administration has also banned Ukraine from launching ATACMS, a longer-range and more powerful rocket, at Russia. Ukrainian officials are seeking expanded permission to launch missiles at Russia.
“All Russian troops in the border areas must be destroyed and not allowed to break through the border,” said Ukrainian military analyst Samus. He said it was unlikely that public disclosure of the specific use of these weapons would be made. “Both Ukraine and the United States have official positions. The rest is the fog of war.”
