During his address on Monday, September 5, 2022, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, said in particular that the rocket artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit a warehouse where the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles were stored, which were to be used for new shelling of Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast.
At the same time, Zelenskyi said the following phrase: "The MLRS is a good thing. Thank you, our heroes!", writes Ukrainska Pravda. The episode deserves a separate analysis.
Read more: Russia Forces Conscripts of the 1st Army Corps to Sign Contracts And “Fight” For Another Three Years
Usually, the abbreviation MLRS denotes the M270 systems received from the USA and Great Britain, and also their German "brother" Mars II. Western countries publicly continue to pursue a policy that the weapons transferred to Ukraine must not be used for strikes on russia’s territory (Crimea is a priori Ukrainian).
According to open sources, russians usually place their missile complexes to shell Kharkiv Oblast in the Belgorod region.
So, Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s statement about the MLRS strike on russia’s missiles storage that were supposed to fire at Kharkiv can be interpreted in the following ways:
- Presidential speechwriters suddenly decided to label Ukraine’s Vilkha system as MLRS;
- The M270 was indeed used for the strike, but the warehouse was located in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine;
- Ukraine’s artillerymen did fire from the M270 at the object in the territory of the Belgorod region, and the Western allies at least tacitly sanctioned such a strike.
The prospects for the transfer of ATACMS tactical missiles may depend on how things actually were.
In turn, the strike on the warehouse of the S-300 missiles did not force russians to finally abandon the shelling of Kharkiv. It is known that the invaders launched two missile strikes on the city that night, resulting in the death of a 73-year-old woman. But on the other hand, it is worth noting the very fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine found a way to reduce the intensity of missile attacks on Kharkiv Oblast.
Read more: 195 Days of the War: russian Casualties in Ukraine
