Long-range ATACMS provided by the US to Ukraine have the potential to make Crimea “militarily worthless” to Russia, according to one military analyst.
Last week, The New York Times reported that the US had secretly shipped about 100 Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, to Ukraine, which has reportedly already put them to use.
The US has previously sent ATACMS with a shorter range, which aided Ukraine’s fight last fall. But the versions sent recently can travel about 190 miles — which puts higher-value targets in Ukraine’s crosshairs.
This includes Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014 and crucial to its military strategy in Ukraine.
Philip Karber, a military analyst with expertise on Ukraine, told Radio Free Europe that “the delivery of ATACMS is a big breakthrough.”
He said the weapons “could basically make Crimea militarily worthless.”
Crimea has been heavily fortified since President Vladimir Putin’s forces occupied it, and it serves his military by both land and sea. It’s home to the advanced port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
It also serves as a crucial logistics hub and military supply route to occupied southern Ukraine, and has been the launchpad for a series of devastating Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine has landed many blows on Crimea before — vastly weakening Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the port of Sevastopol, and periodically targeting the strategic Kerch Bridge that connects the peninsula to Russia.
These have been variously conducted by weapons including air and naval drones, and likely the UK- and France-supplied Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles.
But ATACMS have a key advantage over Storm Shadows, Radio Free Europe reported, in that they travel much faster.
In mid-April, Ukraine claimed to have struck the Dzhankoi military base, in northern Crimea, including a prized S-400 air defense launcher, without elaborating on the weapon used. A senior US official later told the Times that it was among Ukraine’s ATACMS targets.
Last month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Congress to agree on an aid package for Ukraine, he pointed to ATACMS as a key weapon for targeting Crimean airfields.
“When Russia knows we can destroy these jets, they will not attack from Crimea,” Zelenskyy told The Washington Post.
“It’s like with the sea fleet,” he added. “We pushed them from our territorial waters. Now we will push them from the airports in Crimea.”
