Ukraine Strikes Inside Russia With U.S.-Made Missiles
Attack on air-defense system followed shift in policy by Biden administration to allow limited strikes with American weapons
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine used U.S.-made missiles to strike in Russian territory this week as it counters a Russian offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region that appears to have stalled.
Ukraine’s military used Himars ground-to-ground missiles to hit a Russian air-defense system in the Belgorod region, according to a Ukrainian military officer in the area familiar with the strike. Western analysts earlier cited geolocated videos posted online in assessing that Ukraine had used the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, to strike an air-defense battery nearly 40 miles from the current front line.
The Biden administration reversed its policy on Thursday and permitted limited strikes on Russian territory with U.S. weapons to hold back the Russian offensive launched last month toward Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have threatened serious consequences if Western weapons are used to strike within Russia. The Biden administration had long forbidden strikes in Russia in an effort to avoid the risk that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate into a direct clash between Washington and Moscow. But the White House changed its policy after Russia began the fresh thrust toward Kharkiv.
That offensive stretched a thinning defensive line of exhausted Ukrainian troops, and Russian forces quickly seized several villages. Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the area, including elite airborne units, and shored up defenses, largely halting the Russian advance by the end of May.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said Wednesday on a visit to the region that Ukrainian troops were repelling fresh Russian assaults.
Russia has said it is aiming to create a buffer zone along its border. Ukrainian officials say they believe the Kremlin’s ultimate goal is to attempt to seize Kharkiv, although it currently lacks the forces in the area for such an operation.
Ukraine’s government had long pleaded for permission to use Western-provided weapons to strike Russian military targets such as artillery systems, logistics hubs and troop formations before they cross the border.
The new U.S. policy allows Ukrainian forces to use U.S.-supplied artillery and fire short-range rockets from Himars launchers against command posts, arms depots and other assets on Russian territory that are being used by Russian forces to carry out its attack on the Kharkiv region. But the policy doesn’t give Ukraine permission to use longer-range ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles inside Russia.
A video and photographs posted online this week showed smoke and flames coming from what analysts said were two air-defense missile launchers and a command post. Analysts geolocated the images to a field in the Russian border region of Belgorod, which the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said was within Himars range but beyond the range of other rocket systems used by Ukrainian forces.