Ukraine Using ATACMS Missiles To Strike Inside Russia Now On The Table (2024)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will tell Ukraine it can use U.S.-produced Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles inside Russia, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.

“I talked to Blinken two days ago, and he is traveling with his counterpart from the UK [Foreign Secretary David Lammy] to Kyiv to basically tell them that they will allow them [to hit Russia with ATACMS]” Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told Axios reporter Juliegrace Brufke on Friday. Brufke tweeted the comment on Tuesday.

The statement is accurate according to a McCaul/House Foreign Affairs Committee aide.

“The chairman said that at the Tribune Fest” in Texas, the aide confirmed to The War Zone Tuesday morning.

So far, the Biden administration has prohibited Ukraine from using ATACMS – which have a range of nearly 200 miles depending on the variant -inside Russia. Likewise, the U.K. will not allow Ukraine to use donated Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles in Russia.

Blinken was asked during a Tuesday media briefing about whether the Biden administration will change its ATACMS policy.

“So all I can tell you is we’ll be listening intently to our Ukrainian partners,” he said. “We’ll both be reporting back to the prime minister, to President Biden in the coming days. And I fully anticipate this is something they’ll take up when they meet on Friday.”

Blinken hinted at the Biden administration leaving the door open to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS in Russia.

“So I think a hallmark from day one of our efforts to support Ukraine against this aggression is to work to make sure that they have what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression,” he said. “And I think that you’ve seen – again from day one – that we have continuously adjusted and adapted based on the battlefield conditions, based on what Russia was doing in a given place and by given means. And that’s been a through-line in everything that we’ve done.”

However, a U.S. official told The War Zone that “there is no change to our policy governing the use of ATACMS.”

U.K. MoD officials took a similar stance.

“There has been no change in the U.K.’s position” regarding Storm Shadows, an MoD official told The War Zone Tuesday morning. “We have been providing military aid to support Ukraine’s clear right of self-defense against Russia’s illegal attacks in accordance with international humanitarian law. We are clear that equipment provided by the U.K. is intended for the defense of Ukraine.”

The Biden administration has allowed Ukraine to use Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) munitions fired by the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) provided to Ukraine. They have a range of up to about 50 miles.

Unlike the U.S. and Ukraine, the Netherlands announced that it has no such preclusions.

Ukraine can strike anywhere in Russia using weapons provided by the Netherlands, that nation’s defense minister said, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Ruben Brekelmans said permission to strike inside Russia includes the use of the F-16 Vipers the Netherlands is providing to Ukraine and called on other Western countries to lift restrictions on the use of weapons they supply to Ukraine.

“Ukraine has the right to self-defense,” he said. “If the country is attacked from border areas or Russian airfields, it can target [those] military objects.”

Brekelmans added that this also applies to enemy missiles, which can be intercepted by Dutch weapons over Russia.

There has been talk that Iran’s provision of ballistic missiles to Russia would spur the administration to change its ATACMS policy.

Blinken on Tuesday became the latest U.S. official to confirm Russia has received those weapons.

“We’ve warned Tehran publicly, we’ve warned Tehran privately, that taking this step would be a dangerous escalation,” Blinken said. “Dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles. Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians.”

In response to Iran providing Russia with ballistic missiles, the U.S., and U.K. issued a wide range of new sanctions. The U.S. State Department sanctioned Iran Air as well as several Russian shipping companies it says are involved in brining in drone-related equipment from Iran. The U.K also issued sanctions against Iran Air as well as Iranian and Russian military leaders and units as well as businesses.

In addition to three Iranian generals associated with the drone and missile forces, the sanctions hit the Command of the Military Transport Aviation (VTA), the 924th State Centre for Unmanned Aviation, and the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS).

“The U.K. government is today announcing new and significant measures against Iran and Russia,following the Iranian regime’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia for use on the battlefield in Ukraine,” London announced.“This follows repeated warnings from the UK and international partners calling on Iran to cease its planned transfer of the deadly weapons to Russia, whose intent is to cause further humanitarian devastation and loss of life in Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the temporary charge d’affaires of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ukraine Shahryar Amuzeghar to express “deep concern” about the Iranian missiles.

“The relevant comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine dated September 7 was handed over to the Iranian diplomat, with a stern warning that confirmation of Iran’s supply of ballistic weapons to the aggressor state would have devastating and irreparable consequences for Ukrainian-Iranian bilateral relations,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Telegram.

Iranian officials on Monday pushed back on those claims.

“No missile was sent to Russia and this claim is a kind of psychological warfare,” said deputy commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, Brigadier Fazlollah Nozari, Reuters reported, citing the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Meanwhile, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said the ballistic missile threat is another reason Ukraine should be allowed to use donated long-range weapons on Russian soil.

“In response to the supply of ballistic missiles to Russia, Ukraine should be given permission to destroy warehouses with these missiles with Western weapons in order to avoid terror,” Andrii Yermak said on Telegram without specifying who supplied the missiles. “Democracies must respond to the terror of autocracies. Strikes against terrorist Russia are defense. And protection is not escalation.”

The idea that the U.S. could attempt to dissuade Russia from using Iranian ballistic missiles by playing the ATACMS card is a possibility we explored two years ago. This was before ATACMS was approved for Ukraine. Expanding this to targets in Russia could have a similar effect.

A major reason the Biden administration has yet to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS on Russia is concerns over escalating the conflict with a nuclear power. While Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently raised the specter of nuclear warfare, previous red lines crossed, like providing Ukraine with tanks and F-16s, have yet to result in any noticeable actions by Moscow. The coming days should show us whether another red line has been erased.

The Latest

As we reported earlier today, Ukraine just carried out its largest drone strike yet on Moscow, about 280 miles north of the border. Drones have been a stable of GUR’s long-range attacks inside Russia. The barrage killed at least one person and caused significant damage and disruption.

On the battlefield, Russia continues to push forward toward the key Donetsk logistics hub of Pokrovsk while Ukraine’s month-old invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast continues with no end in sight.

Though Ukrainian forces are still more than 20 miles to the south of Kurchatov, home of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, authorities are restricting access to roads near the plant.

“In the context of the (anti-terrorism) CTO regime in force in the region, in order to ensure additional security measures, the operational headquarters has decided to restrict the passage of transit transport through the industrial zone of the Kursk NPP,” Gov. Alexei Smirnov said Tuesday on Telegram. “The detour route will pass through the village of Ivanino in the Kurchatovsky district. Special signs and indicators will be installed to inform local residents.”

Ukrainian forces again struck bridges over the Seim River.

The video below shows a cluster munitions strike on a bridge near the town of Zvannoe that was partially destroyed in a previous strike. Despite that, Russia was still able to move light traffic by fashioning makeshift repairs. There are an estimated 3,000 Russian troops trapped south of the river.

Ukraine also attacked a pontoon bridge over the Seim that was erected in the spot of a span that was destroyed in a previous attack near the town of Karyzh, about 4.5 miles west of Zvannoe. The attack was reportedly carried out by a U.S.-supplied winged JDAM-ER GPS-guided glide bomb.

Meanwhile, video emerged of Russian troops recording an attack on a Seim bridge. Given that it shows an attack by cluster munitions, it could be from the strike on the Zvannoe span, but we can’t say for sure.

Beyond the environmental damage caused by munitions strikes on bridges over the river, the Seim is being polluted by Russia, according to Ukraine’s prime minister.

In recent days, reports have emerged showing the pollution of the Seim and Desna rivers in Ukraine. Shmyhal confirmed that the pollution of the Seim River led to a decrease in oxygen levels and a large-scale fish die-off.

During its Kursk invasion, Ukraine has recovered many of the vehicles damaged in the fight. You can see one such instance in the following video.

As Ukrainian forces press slowly westward toward the Kursk Oblast town of Glushkovo, it appears that Russian troops looted stores there ahead of the advance.

The Ashes Kursk Telegram channel posted a video Tuesday claiming to show the results of Russian troops plundering several businesses.

“The footage shows a partially looted Pelican store with hunting and fishing equipment and the Green Pharmacy, as well as completely looted Tele2, Beeline and Megafon mobile phone stores,” Ashes Kursk stated.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman on Monday highlighted what we’ve been saying for months about the key Donetsk Oblast logistic hub of Pokrovsk.

“…any territory that Russia takes further, you know, expands their areas of occupation, which is certainly not a good thing,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. “That city in particular, you know, is at a strategic crossroads, particularly in terms of lines of communication. Clearly, it’s important for Ukraine to continue to hold that. “they’re investing heavily in trying to do that.”

Russian troops “are trying to fight their way to that city,” said Ryder. “They’re not there yet. They’re not necessarily close to taking that city. But, you know, that is definitely – they’ve said publicly, in the Donbas region, that is an objective.”

Those forces are now about six miles east of Pokrovsk, according to the latest DeepState map. As they get closer, they’ve ramped up their artillery and aerial attacks.

“As a result of Russian shelling, one person was killed and another was injured in the Pokrovsk community in Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian Suspline news agency said on Telegram. “As a result of the Russian strike, 28,000 people were left without gas in the cities of Pokrovsk and Rodynske. Russian troops targeted a gas distribution station, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.”

Russia is paying a high price in personnel and equipment for its advance. The video below purports to show Ukrainian troops capturing a Russian BMP-3 and its crew near Pokrovsk.

Ukraine claims to have engineered a counterattack in the Donetsk Oblast city of New York, at least temporarily halting the momentum of Russia’s drive toward Tortesk.

“The scarce fortified defenses in the residential sector pushed Ukrainian forces to dig in at their only remaining stronghold — the heavily fortified chemical plant” in New York, Euromaidan Press reported. “The Russians advanced effectively by leveraging their fire control and observation points from the high-rises, coupled with numerical superiority and heavy firepower, to push the Ukrainian troops back toward the chemical plant.”

However, “their momentum was short-lived as Ukrainian forces quickly fortified their positions around the industrial zone, putting the brakes on the Russian advance just outside the plant,” the publication wrote. “The Ukrainians utilized the plant’s strong defensive structures to fend off the Russian assault, preventing further Russian advance into the industrial sector.”

Meanwhile, images seem to partially back up the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that its forces have captured the town of Vodyane, about 25 miles southeast of Pokrovsk. The images below purport to show the Russians have raised their tricolor flag in the northern part of that town.

Russia is also continuing attempts to advance in Kharkiv Oblast, but those are often thwarted, with Russia suffering troop and equipment losses.

In one Kharkiv Oblast skirmish, Ukrainian forces captured a Russian bunker and found radios they used to torment them.

“If you don’t come out, you’re screwed,” they said. The following video, from the 3rd Company of the 2nd Assault Battalion of the 3rd Assault Brigade, shows the intensity of trench and dugout warfare.

Russia is also attacking the Kharkiv area by air. The video below shows the results of a strike by a unified gliding and correction module UMPK bomb on a building in Kupiansk.

The Biden administration has sent Congress a classified report on its strategy for the war in Ukraine, a Senate source told The War Zone on Tuesday. It was delivered months after a June deadline mandated in a multibillion-dollar spending bill lawmakers passed in April. The source declined to talk about the details because the report is classified.

The statement confirms earlier reporting by Reuters.

A congressional aide told Reuters that the long-awaited report had reached lawmakers on Monday and they had not yet had a chance to review it. Two other sources, requesting anonymity to discuss a classified matter, confirmed that it had been delivered. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The first group of Ukrainian fighter pilots have arrived in Canada to begin training on Vipers, the nation’s Minister of National Defense said.

The training is being funded by nearly $400 million Canada has contributed, said Bill Blair.

“As a lead nation in the (Ukraine Defense Contact Group) Air Force Capability Coalition, Canada has committed to conducting this training over the next five years,” he told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to Turkey’s proposal to stop Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and commercial and civilian ships before Ukraine invaded Kursk, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu claimed.

“Turkey has said to us, ‘they [Ukraine] have this proposal, let’s have [Russia] vouch we wouldn’t strike energy infrastructure, we wouldn’t strike nuclear energy facilities, and we wouldn’t strike commercial civilian fleets in the Black Sea,'” Shoigu said, according to Ukrainian Pravda. “Our president made a decision and agreed to this.”

Shoigu, the former defense minister, said that Ukraine rejected the proposal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov denied Shoigu’s assertion.

“There were no clear agreements,” he said, according to Eurasia Daily. “This is the first one. Now it is difficult to imagine the possible achievement of any agreements against the background of the situation in the Kursk region.”

Peskov also assailed Ukraine for what he claimed were attacks on residential buildings in Russia. That is another reason why the invasion, which Moscow dubbed a “special military operation,” must continue, he said.

Last week we told you about how thermite-spewing “Dragon” drones were being used by Ukraine. Now an advisor to the head of Ukraine’s military weighed in on these fearsome weapons.

“The Dragon drone is a fairly effective means of smoking out or destroying enemy positions,” said Alexander Dmitriiev, an advisor to Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The U.K. Defense Ministry (MoD) released new satellite images shedding new light on the damage caused by Ukraine’s Aug. 22 drone stroke on the Marinovka Air Base in Russia’s Volgograd region. The base is located some 300 miles from the front lines. The open-source images from Maxar Technologies show four aircraft sheds were destroyed and two damaged. In addition, an enclosed and an open-air storage area were also destroyed.

This confirms our initial reporting about the attack that suggested several hangars were “very likely damaged, possibly severely, in the attack, which was claimed by Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU).”

Imagery taken Aug. 19 showed what appeared to have been more than a dozen Su-24M Fencer swing-wing attack jets and more than a dozen Su-34 Fullback strike aircraft at the base. It is unknown how many of those jets were there at the time of the attack.

In the beginning of the all-out war, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones proved so effective as a strike weapon that there was even a song written about them. Ukraine reportedly received dozens from Turkey and received small numbers from other sources.

Inokentiy Razumov, a consultant with Ukraine’s Come Back Alive Foundation charity, recalled how a single TB-2 stopped the long Russian columns heading toward Kyiv in the early days of the war.

“It delayed the enemy,” he said.

However, their use has since been significantly curtailed overall due to the fortification of Russia’s anti-air umbrella over and beyond the front lines. They are still being used though, mainly as surveillance platforms and to correct artillery fires, according to Ukrainian Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, commander of the Defense Intelligence Directorate.

GUR recently posted a compilation video of attacks it claims it carried out in occupied Sevastopol as well as on targets in Russia including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Smolensk and other locations. The War Zone cannot independently verify those claims.

Confirming what was widely believed as a result of previous strikes, Budanov said his country has drones that can reach 1,800 km (about 1,100 miles),

“Unmanned systems currently being developed by top specialists, including representatives of the Chief Intelligence Directorate, already allow to impress military objects of the aggressor state at a distance of up to 1,800 km,” Budanov said on Facebook Saturday. “Military airfields, which are a source of constant threat to peaceful Ukrainian cities, are trembling from air strikes. The entire infrastructure of Russia that works for the war will suffer and will suffer losses. After all, instead of defending its own, Russia chose the wrong path of an unprovoked war and an attack on the land of a sovereign state.”

Ukraine has carried out a series of long-distance drone attacks on Russian airbases and fuel infrastructure facilities including a suspected attack in August near the Olenya Air Base in Murmansk. That’s the home of Russian strategic bombers in the Arctic Circle about 1,200 miles from Ukraine. While that’s about 100 miles beyond Budanov’s stated range, it could mean that GUR has been using longer-distance drones or used either sabotage teams or local partisan groups. Ukrainian drones also attacked an oil depot in Russia’s Kirov Oblast more than 700 miles from the border.

Speaking of Murmansk, Russian troops at the Severomorsk-1 Northern Fleet base held a training exercise simulating an “enemy” attack there.

“The main episode of the exercises was the mass withdrawal from the attack of the conventional enemy aircraft,” the official Russian TVZvedzda news outlet reported. “More than 20 aircraft were involved in special exercises on the types of support of the Navy, including Su-30SM, Su-33, Su-24M, MiG-29K, Ka-27 helicopters of various modifications, other aircraft equipment, 58 units of military and special equipment, more than 750 personnel.”

The exercise included small arms fire, drones, and the movement of the aircraft.

Back in Ukraine, Russian troops tried to shoot down a first-person view (FPV) drone but they were not able to prevent it from seriously striking one of them, causing serious injuries. Warning, this video contains graphic images.

One Russian soldier recounted the devastating effects Ukrainian drones have had, pointing out several instances where they struck while his comrades were trying to set up or resupply positions.

There is reportedly a very dark competition among Ukrainian drone operators. Taking a play from video games, they compete to “steal” kills from fellow operators.

We’ve told you about Ukraine attacking Russian helicopters with drones. New video has emerged showing Ukrainian drone operators training for such attacks with a simulator.

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle continues to be a devastating weapon for Ukraine. This video shows one blasting Russian positions with its Bushmaster M242 25 mm automatic cannon.

If you ever wanted a cockpit view of a Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrum downing Russian Shahed-136 drones, check out this video of one nighttime mission. It shows at least two kills, one reportedly by an R-73 short-range air-to-air missile (AAM) and the other by an unknown AAM.

Video emerged on social media claiming to show a HIMARS attack on a Russian S-400 air defense system. There is no date or location mentioned and it is hard to discern from the video exactly what was hit.

In October 2022, we told you that Portugal agreed to provide Ukraine with six Ka-32A11BC helicopters. The Iberian nation recently made good on that pledge. Portugal’s Defense Ministry stated that the last of those helicopters left for Ukraine on Sept. 6.

A prominent Russian milblogger went off at Russia’s leadership over the state of the war against Ukraine.

“Traitors are sitting in the Kremlin, that’s the point, damn it,” Yegor Guzenko, known as “13th,” railed. “Planes are falling. Explosions are happening. They get rid of all the inconvenient people and throw them in prison, damn it. These are all fucking traitors.”

One of Guzenko’s idols was the outspoken Yevgeny Prigozhin, who famously began, then called off a march on Moscow in a putative putsch attempt in July 2023 before dying in a plane crash a month later. In his rant, he said he was not afraid to speak out against Russian leadership.

“So what, are you going to arrest us all?” he asked rhetorically. “Kill us all, damn it? There are many of us, damn it. We are a whole country.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that his country didn’t invade Ukraine to seek additional territory but to seek “humane treatment” for people who are part of the “Russkiy Mir,” the so-called Russian world.

Polish security services stopped a sabotage operation orchestrated by Russia and Belarus that aimed to destabilize Poland, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on Monday.

Saboteurs, operating from Belarus in cooperation with Russia, penetrated local and central government institutions, including state-owned companies implementing military contracts, he said, according to Reuters.

“The Belarusian and Russian foreign services… had a specific goal – to extort information, to blackmail individuals and institutions and to wage a de facto cyberwar,” said Gawkowski, who is also minister for digital affairs.

In Odessa, a sea mine that washed up on shore may be a rare PDM-3 variant that broke loose from its anchor.

While Ukraine has received millions of rounds of artillery ammunition from the U.S. and NATO allies, it is also using some from Iran, Pakistan and India as is evidenced in this photo below. You can read more about the Pakistan connection in our feature here.

And finally, The sinister smile is back.

The toothy grin like the one once painted on a U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS was recently spotted on an M1083 Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles truck (FMTV) towing an M777 howitzer.

That’s it for now.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com