The US-made HIMARS truck-mounted missile system on display in March at the World Defense Expo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Credit… Fayez Nureldain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
As Russia’s foreign minister made clear that Moscow’s territorial ambitions extend beyond Ukraine’s eastern territories, the United States said on Wednesday it would send four more advanced ballistic missiles to Ukraine.
The missile launchers, which can unleash salvos that rival the devastating effect of an air strike from a jet aircraft loaded with precision-guided bombs, are part of an array of new, longer-range weapons that the United States is providing the Ukrainian military with an air of superiority. They underscore Washington’s determination to help counter Russian military might and President Vladimir Putin’s goal of subduing Ukraine, a sovereign state.
But with Russia until recently making gradual but steady gains on the battlefield, and with Ukraine’s Western allies struggling to keep up with Ukraine’s seemingly insatiable appetite for weapons, Ukraine faces an uphill battle to gain battlefield parity. And there is disagreement between Ukrainian and American officials about what that will take.
In a briefing to reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said the four more advanced multiple-missile launchers would bring the total number provided by the United States to 16.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced that the US military would send additional advanced missile systems to help Ukraine defend itself. Credit Credit… Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in June that Ukraine needed 300 multiple-launch missile systems and 500 tanks, among other things, to better compete with forces Russia could use . This is several times more than what was promised to Ukraine.
Michael G. Vickers, the Pentagon’s former top civilian official for counterinsurgency strategy, said this month that the Ukrainians need at least 60 and perhaps as many as 100 HIMARS or other multiple-launch missile systems to win the artillery battle.
Also hanging over the arms transfers is how long American resolve will last amid high gasoline prices and rising demands for national sacrifices in Europe and the United States. The Biden administration has also been hesitant to provide weapons that could reach Russian territory and possibly spark a wider war.
The dozen M142 HIMARS — an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems — already delivered from Pentagon warehouses have already made a difference on the battlefield, Mr. Austin said. Ukrainian soldiers have used them to destroy Russian command and control centers and ammunition depots. Each M142 HIMARS truck carries six guided missiles loaded with 200 pounds of high explosives that can engage targets 50 miles away.
“It affects the pace of the fight and potentially creates some opportunities here,” Mr Austin said. “There is much more to be done – HIMARS alone will not change or win or lose a battle.”
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said this week that Ukraine’s military needs at least 100 of the US launch vehicles to “become a game-changer on the battlefield.” HIMARS and other missile launchers already sent to Ukraine have helped destroy about 30 Russian command posts and ammunition storage units, he said.
“It significantly slowed the Russian advance and dramatically reduced the intensity of their artillery fire,” Mr. Reznikov said in an online interview Tuesday for the Atlantic Council, a Washington research group. “So it works.”
As debate continues in the West over what is needed to rein in Russian forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said on Wednesday that Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine now extend beyond the country’s eastern territories, a departure from earlier claims by the Kremlin , that she is not waging a war of imperial expansion.
As Ukraine stepped up attacks against Russian forces in southern Ukraine as a possible prelude to a large-scale counter-offensive, Mr Lavrov said Moscow was also eyeing the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in southern Ukraine, parts of which are occupied by Russian forces, as and “a number of other territories”.
Eric Schmidt contributed reporting.
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