(Bloomberg) -- The Defense Department said lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s ability to carry out strikes deep inside Russia would have “very little strategic value” because the country’s military has already moved almost all of its armaments out of range.
The US assesses that 90% of Russian aircraft that launch glide bombs and fire missiles against Ukraine are now in airfields that are about 300 kilometers (186 miles) away from Ukrainian-controlled territory, putting them out of reach for US long-range ATACM missiles, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday.
“ATACMs would not be able to reach these airfields so therefore the challenges posed by these glide bombs would still remain,” Singh said. Even if Ukraine were to use the missiles against the small number of airfields still in range, the Russian military would move them back, she said. “So the impact would be very little,” Singh said.
Singh’s comments highlight how the US has so far refused to budge in the face of a Ukrainian request to lift all restrictions on sending weapons capable of striking well inside Russia.
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The Biden administration has held back those types of weapons or imposed limits on their use amid concern that such attacks could escalate the war. Some of those restrictions were eased in May when the US allowed Kyiv to launch US-provided munitions against military targets inside a limited area of Russia to neutralize an advance in the Kharkiv region.
“The argument that somehow if you just give them an ATACM and tell them it’s OK, that they’re going to be able to go in and hit the majority of the Russian aircraft and air bases that are in fact used to strike them is not true,” White House spokesman John Kirby, a former Navy rear admiral, said Wednesday. “It’s a misconception.”
Singh said a number of factors are leading the US not to loosen all restrictions. In addition to concerns about escalation, there is also a limited number of ATACMs.
She said Ukraine has been successful in using the missiles against Russian forces in the south and the east of the country, adding the US is working on helping them direct more of that firepower to the east where Russian forces continue to press toward the town of Pokrovsk.
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