Putin plays down threat of U.s.-supplied missiles
One day after Ukraine used newly acquired, U. S.-made missiles to launch a damaging attack on Russian air bases in occupied territories, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to play down the impact the weapons will have on the battlefield.
“It is another mistake by the United States,” Putin said, adding itwill only prolong “Ukraine’s agony.”
Speaking with journalists at the end of his visit to China, Putin admitted that the delivery of the long-range missiles— known as ATACMS — would “create a new threat” and “cause harm” to Russia, but that the new weapons “cannot change the situation on the front lines” because Russia can fend off attacks by such missiles.
Dan Rice, the president of the American University in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a military expert who has long lobbied for the U.S. to provide the munitions, disputed Putin’s assessment.
“These are ballistic missiles,” Rice said. “He has no defense against them, other than misinformation.”
“Any supply depot or command and control or large troop concentration within 100 miles of the front line should be worried,” he said.
Russian military bloggers loosely affiliated with the Kremlin noted the devastating impact of the first use of the missiles.
The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which is believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian army, called the strikes “one of the most serious blows” since Russia launched its fullscale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, military analysts also noted Russia has adjusted to new Ukrainian strike capabilities in the past and likely would do so again.
Thewhite House had long resisted providing the weapons to Ukraine out of concern that it would escalate the conflict with the Kremlin, a threat bolstered by Putin’s episodic threats to unleash tactical nuclear weapons.
Over the past 19 months, Russia has attacked Ukraine with nearly every conventional weapon in its arsenal, and Ukraine has dismissed concerns about escalation as it fights for its survival as a sovereign nation.
The Biden administration finally agreed to provide Ukraine with a version of themissile with a limited range of only 100miles, and covertly delivered themin recent days.
The weapons delivered so far have been the variety armed with cluster munitions that spread out to do maximum damage to exposed targets such as aircraft on a runway.