Group of Republicans in US Congress Calls for Longer-Range ATACMS for Ukraine

A group of high-ranking Republicans in the US Congress has called on President Joe Biden to send missiles with longer effective range to Ukraine.

Reuters obtained a letter to President Joe Biden dated 1 November. It is stated there that leading Republicans on the congressional foreign relations and armed services committees said they welcomed reports that the administration had provided Ukraine with several Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) but asked that he also send more longer-range systems.

"Ukraine's requirement for deep-strike capability remains urgent, particularly to range targets throughout Crimea," Representatives Michael McCaul and Mike Rogers and Senators James Risch and Roger Wicker wrote.

McCaul chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Rogers chairs the House Armed Services Committee; Risch is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Wicker is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

They sent the letter as the Republican-majority House of Representatives nears a vote on a separate Israel aid bill, ignoring Democratic President Joe Biden's demand that it pass a broad US$106 billion national security funding package that includes money for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

In their letter, the US lawmakers noted that Ukraine had requested the long-range missiles and demonstrated the ability to use them responsibly and that Russia had not escalated in response to their use.

"Clearly, it is time for you to finish the job on ATACMS. The costs of failing to do so not only risks stalemate on the battlefield and the further protraction of this war, but also threatens further global instability as our adversaries conduct influence operations around the globe," they wrote.

Earlier in October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces had used US-made long-range ATACMS missiles to strike Russian occupiers' airfields in the captured cities of Berdiansk and Luhansk.

This information was later confirmed by the White House. They noted that the United States had "recently" provided Ukraine with ATACMS capable of striking at a distance of up to 165 kilometres.

The New York Times stated that the United States had so far provided Ukraine with about 20 long-range ATACMS missiles.