US says Ukraine won't be able to strike most Russian military aircraft with ATACMS

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has stated during a briefing that claims suggesting Ukraine could strike most of the military aircraft from which Russia conducts attacks on Ukrainian territory with the help of ATACMS missiles are incorrect.

"Nothing's changed about our policy with respect to long-range strikes inside Russia and for Russian territory. I also think it's important to note, if I might, that 90% of the aircraft that Russia uses for glide bombs and long-range strikes – we've done the maths on this – 90% of them lie outside 300 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, deep inside Russia. 

So, the argument that somehow, if you just give them [the Ukrainians] an ATACMS and tell them 'it's okay' that they're going to be able to go in and hit the majority of the Russian aircraft and air bases that are, in fact, used to strike them is not true; it's a misconception," Kirby said, as reported by Voice of America.

Meanwhile, Kirby noted that the US is continuing to work on strengthening Ukraine's air defence:

"What Mr. Putin's doing is hitting civilian infrastructure, trying, especially in advance of winter coming, knocking out energy grids. It's despicable; unfortunately, it's a play right out of his playbook. It's not something new he hadn't done before. 

Nothing's changed about our view that Ukraine should be able to use the tools it has available to it to defend itself, and that's why air defence continues to be a prominent issue in these security packages that we're giving, so that they can help defend against these attacks on their energy infrastructure," he added.

The US earlier reported that it had not changed its policy on Ukraine striking deep within Russian territory with the use of US-provided weapons.