America is preparing to supply Ukraine with long-range missile systems
US officials revealed to CNN that the administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing to send long-range missile systems to Ukraine.
Officials said the administration will send these systems as part of a larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could be announced next week.
Senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have appealed to the United States in recent weeks to supply them with the MLRS launcher.
Kyiv also demanded from Washington to provide it with the advanced missile system "M142 HIMARS".
American defense systems can launch a barrage of missiles with a range of hundreds of kilometers, far beyond any of the systems Ukraine already has, and Ukrainians argue that these systems could be a game changer in their war against Russia.
Officials said there had been concerns within the US National Security Council that Ukraine could use the systems to carry out attacks inside Russia.
The sources pointed out that one of the main concerns was the wide range of the missile systems, as the "MLRS" system and its lighter version "HIMARS" could launch missiles at a distance of 300 km from a moving vehicle at ground targets, which would allow the Ukrainians to strike targets inside Russia more easily.
Ukraine is already believed to have carried out several cross-border strikes into Russia, which Ukrainian officials have neither confirmed nor denied.
Russian officials have said publicly that any threat to their homeland would constitute a major escalation and said Western countries were making themselves a legitimate target in the war by continuing to arm the Ukrainians.
In response to a question about whether the United States will provide these systems, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Monday, told reporters, "I don't want to pre-empt where we are in the provision of resources."
The controversy over the MLRS is also similar to the debate that took place before the United States decided to begin sending long-range howitzers to Ukraine last month.
US military aid packages have focused on Javelin anti-tank missiles and short-range Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as well as small arms and ammunition.
US officials believe that the solution is to provide Ukraine with short-range missile systems.
Officials told CNN that training Ukrainians in any of the missile launch systems likely wouldn't take long, about two weeks.
On the Ukrainian side, frustration with US reluctance has grown in recent weeks, because they believe that once the United States sends in the systems, other countries will quickly follow suit.
"We are in dire need of weapons that could engage the enemy at long distances. This cannot be postponed, because the price of delay is measured by the lives of the people who protected the world from (Russian fascism)," General Valery Zaluzhny, commander of the Ukrainian army, said Thursday.
When Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was asked Thursday about his country's most urgent needs, he replied: "If you really care about Ukraine, arms, arms, arms again."
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