Pentagon: US not providing ATACM missiles to Ukraine
The US Defense Department has dismissed American media reports about its decision to provide Ukraine with ATACM long-range missiles.
The Pentagon spokesman on Thursday ruled out any imminent decisions for supplying Kiev with the US Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS.
"I don't have anything to announce regarding ATACMs and certainly I'm not aware of any imminent decisions as it relates to ATACMs," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a press briefing.
His remarks came after The Wall Street Journal reported that the US was close to supplying Ukraine with such missiles.
As a senior Ukrainian defense official told the Journal, in recent weeks "Kyiv has received positive signs that the US has changed its position on the ATACMS system."
Kiev has repeatedly called on its Western allies to provide it with the ATACM missiles, which have a range of about 300 kilometers, roughly four times the range of the missiles used by the mobile HIMARS systems that the US began sending to Ukraine last year.
Ukraine said the ATACM missiles would help its forces strike Russian positions far behind the front lines.
Washington has already provided Kiev with HIMARS launchers, which are capable of firing ATACM missiles.
Back in October, Moscow said supplying Kiev with long-range missiles was a red line, and Russia would respond to suppliers with specific measures.
Russian officials have repeatedly announced that flooding Ukraine with weapons will only increase the destruction.
Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about the haphazard military shipments to Ukraine.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said Washington’s military aid to Ukraine was a US-led “proxy war” against Russia.
She said the Ukraine war had placed a heavy financial burden on the shoulders of Americans, who were already grappling with poverty.
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