Ukraine Demands More Long-Range Missiles To Kick Out Russian Forces

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems as Ukrainian troops move to consolidate control over a large swath of northeastern territory seized back from Russia, Tom Balmforth for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Ukraine will request additional weapons from the US and its allies, including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a range of over 300 kilometers.

Ukraine will request additional weapons from the US and its allies, including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a range of over 300 kilometers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The US has been reluctant to provide the ATACMS out of concern that they could be used to fire into Russia and potentially escalate the conflict further, Natasha Bertrand reported for CNN.

But in an analysis published last week, two top Ukrainian generals — Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi and Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Zabrodskyi — said that Ukraine is at a disadvantage because the Russians have assets that can fire as far as 1,200 miles, whereas the Ukrainians’ systems have a maximum range of around 60 miles.

Ukraine’s rout of Russian forces this weekend is creating a new kind of political challenge for President Vladimir V. Putin: It undercuts the image of competence and might that he has worked for two decades to build, Anton Troianovski reported for the New York Times.

“Strength is the only source of Putin’s legitimacy,” Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin who is now a political consultant living in Israel, said in a phone interview.

“And in a situation in which it turns out that he has no strength, his legitimacy will start dropping toward zero.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukrainian forces have made "significant progress" with Western support, the Associated Press (AP), BBC and Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported.

"What they have done is very methodically planned out and of course, it's benefited from significant support from the United States and many other countries in terms of making sure that Ukraine has in its hands the equipment it needs to prosecute this counteroffensive," Blinken said during a news conference in Mexico City.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had recaptured roughly 6,000 square km (2,400 square miles) of territory, a sliver of Ukraine's overall land mass of around 600,000 square km. The recaptured land is approximately equivalent to the combined area of the West Bank and Gaza.

The area seized by Ukraine in six days is more than the land snatched by Russia in five months, the Washington Post reported.

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