US had change of heart on ATACMS delivery to Ukraine, ambassador says
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova. Photo by Andrii Hudzenko / LIGA.net

The Biden administration has shown a change of heart regarding possible transfer of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, Kyiv’s ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova told Ukrainian publication The Page.

"In late May, there was an important change in the tone of US President Joe Biden’s response to the supply of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine," Ms Markarova said.

"While earlier, all the answers sounded like, ‘Just forget it’, then we heard for the first time that the issue was being discussed."

The ambassador noted there are no insurmountable ‘red lines’ in negotiations with allies regarding military assistance to Ukraine, and there have been a number of weapons where the initial ‘no’ to Ukraine changed to ‘yes’.

"It's not always because there was a clear ‘no’ position and it changed to a clear ‘yes’ position. It's because there is a large set of factors for each capability," Ms Markarova explained.

"And political willingness to provide assistance is an important factor, but not the only one," she added, saying that such other factors include availability, training time, integration with Ukrainian Armed Forces’ current capabilities, production, and logistics.

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ATACMS is an American tactical ballistic missile system, with a range of 165 to 310 kilometres, that can be launched from HIMARS and MLRS systems. So far, Ukraine has received HIMARS ammunition with a 70 to 80 kilometres’ range.

The White House, which has been called upon more than once to provide Ukraine with ATACMS, has ruled that possibility out, unofficially because it feared Kyiv would use the missiles to strike Russian territory.

war in Ukrainemilitary aidUnited StatesATACMSOksana Markarova