Russian military helicopters based in occupied Ukrainian territory erupted into flames early Tuesday in what is believed to be the first Ukrainian use of ATACMS, which officials hailed as proof that Russia will be forced to withdraw from all occupied Ukrainian land.
“Special thanks to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday on social media. “They are executed very accurately — ‘ATACMS’ have proven themselves.”
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Zelensky’s celebratory post made explicit what a pro-Russian Telegram channel reputedly linked to the Russian air force already had surmised: Ukrainian forces used the long-range missiles to conduct “one of the most serious strikes of all time in the [war], if not the most serious.” The strike comes in the wake of attacks on Russian Black Sea Fleet targets in Crimea, the occupied peninsula where Russia began the war, including strikes that destroyed a Russian submarine and landing ship and, more recently, damaged a Russian missile carrier.
“The pressure is growing,” Ukrainian foreign affairs committee chairman Oleksandr Merezhko told the Washington Examiner. “Sometimes it seems to me that, one day, we have as a focus of our military efforts, the Black Sea. The other day, we have [as a focus] land territories.”
The use of the ATACMS represents a major military and diplomatic benchmark for Zelensky, who has requested the long-range missiles since the initial months of the full-scale war in Ukraine. And Zelensky’s team hailed their arrival as a sign that Russia will not be able to hold the Ukrainian land that Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed despite the slow progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent months.
“A new chapter of this war has (un)officially begun,” Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on social media. “Moscow will eventually have to recognize the conditions on the ground. There are no more safe places for Russian troops within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. This means that there is no possibility of retaining the South, Crimea, and the Black Sea Fleet in the medium term.”
The strike overnight damaged the runways while destroying “nine helicopters with different modifications,” according to Ukrainian military officials, as well as an air defense system, “special equipment parked at the air bases,” and ammunition. Ukrainian officials touted it as a “quite important” blow that complicates Russia’s reliance on attack helicopters near the front lines.
“The enemy is trying to keep helicopters closer to the contact line,” Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the occupiers have more advanced helicopter equipment and more up-to-date weapons. They have anti-tank guided missiles with a long range. Their helicopters are employed continuously within 10 or more kilometers from the line of direct contact. Therefore, destroying such equipment is quite important for us.”
It is not clear how many ATACMS have been or will be given to Ukraine. Biden authorized the delivery of a “small number of the missiles … in recent days,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Biden previously hesitated to provide the ATACMS due to an apparent misgiving that Russia might retaliate against NATO.
“I’ve spent several hundred hours face to face with our European allies … making the case as to why it was overwhelmingly in their interest that they continue to support Ukraine,” Biden said during a press conference with Zelensky in December, in which he explained his hesitation to provide the more advanced weapons. “They understand it fully, but they’re not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a third World War.”
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Photos of shell fragments circulating on social media have led some private sector analysts to conclude that there are “at minimum, 98 more” of the variant of missile used in the strike.
“We see that we, so to speak, haven’t crossed the red lines of Putin — you know, his reaction is weak to this attack. We don’t see actually any, any strong reaction,” Merezhko said. “And I think, to us, it’s encouragement to continue and to get more ATACMS.”
