Falcon powers – Ukraine has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, secretly supplied by the United States, for the first time, as it targeted a Russian military airport in the Crimea peninsula last week and Russian forces in another Ukrainian region overnight, according to US officials on Wednesday.
The new missiles, which Ukrainian leaders have sought for a long time, nearly double Ukraine’s striking distance, reaching up to 300 kilometers.
The information regarding the delivery was kept confidential to the extent that lawmakers and others in recent days called on the United States to send weapons without knowing that they were already present in Ukraine.
For months, the United States resisted sending long-range missiles to Ukraine out of fear that Kyiv would use them to strike deep into Russian territory, angering Moscow and escalating the conflict. This was a major reason for the US administration’s decision to send medium-range missiles, with a range of approximately 160 kilometers, in October instead.
Admiral Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with the Associated Press that the long-range weapons will help Ukraine disrupt Russian logistics and concentrations of forces not present on the front lines. He refused to specify the exact weapons to be provided but stated that they would be “extremely destructive if used properly, and I am confident that they will be.”
