US denies Ukraine priority for ATACMS delivery - WSJ
Lloyd Austin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: Getty Images)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the United States to make Ukraine a priority country for ATACMS missile delivery. However, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin refused, reports the Wall Street Journal.
According to one US official, the US defense secretary rejected the Ukrainian president's request, saying that breaking longstanding agreements with other ATACMS buyers would raise “a lot of questions.”
The sources claim he told Zelenskyy that it would be too much to ask to break longstanding agreements with other buyers.
It is important to note that Ukraine insists on receiving additional ATACMS missiles, which have a radius of more than 320 kilometers. This is necessary so that the country can strike deep into Russian territory.
At the end of October, Lloyd Austin said that the United States would not allow Ukraine to use long-range ATACMS missiles in Russia. Washington believes that Russia has already moved its targets beyond the missiles' range.
“I think they (Ukrainians - ed.) have the ability to continue to conduct long-range strikes, and they will,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
The Pentagon chief added that Ukraine has many capabilities that the United States has provided in terms of drones.
