'..we refuse to declare that we want Ukraine to win and we stop short of providing what’s really needed…long-range precision weapons to make Crimea untenable for Russian forces and air power to support ground operations.'
- Ben Hodges (
Source, August 10, 2023)
'Helping Ukraine 'as long as it takes' is the right approach. But helping Ukraine 'as quick as it takes' would be even better and cheaper.'
- Daniel Szeligowski (
Source, August 9, 2023)
'Ukraine has repeatedly called for more air defense platforms, and President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his request for "the necessary modern weapons, including long-range missiles" in an address in late July.
"We need ATACMS, and we are waiting for a corresponding decision. We need more air defense systems," the head of Zelensky's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said last month.
"The U.S. should license the re-export to Ukraine of ATACMS held by European allies and backfill those same allies," Edward Hunter Christie, a former NATO official, wrote on social media. "Can't argue against it on 'escalation management' grounds with Ukraine getting Storm Shadows since May," he added.
Ukraine needs ATACMS and Germany's Taurus cruise missile "urgently as an interim solution," Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo, Norway, wrote on Twitter. Hoffmann told Newsweek on Monday that the Taurus would be useful for Ukraine to continue strikes on key bridges in the annexed Crimean peninsula, should Berlin move to provide them.
Although ATACMS are different to the Storm Shadow, SCALP and Taurus missiles made by European manufacturer MBDA, they would add to Ukraine's ability to target Russian sites far behind the front lines.
"The main benefit is not range but simply capacity," Ed Arnold, a research fellow in European security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Newsweek last month.
The ATACMS would be better suited to targets like warehouses or storage depots, rather than the bunkers or fortified targets Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles are designed to destroy.'
-
Newsweek, August 8, 2023
Context(Ukraine needs ATACMs) - '..making the judgments that could help Ukraine defeat Russia, regain its territory, and win this war.'(Ukraine needs ATACMs) - '..Moscow can’t be trusted..'