Despite the Biden administration being opposed to the idea of supplying ATACMS tactical missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the government of Ukraine is still pushing for it, seeking consensus, CNN reports referring to its own sources.
For example, the Ukrainian side is speaking of providing the ATACMS under the condition that Ukraine will consistently and to full extent report on every potential target that is going to be hit with these missiles.
Read more: Without ATACMS: What are the Analogs to the American Far-Reaching Missile
"The remarkable transparency essentially gives the US veto power over Ukrainian targeting of Russia and is meant to convince the administration that providing the critical weapons would not lead to strikes inside Russian territory, which the US fears would escalate the war and draw it directly into a conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin," CNN writes.
The authors note that despite the Ukrainian proposals, the Biden administration has currently not agreed to give the ATACMS to Ukraine while saying those missiles for HIMARS that are already available to the Armed Forces of Ukraine are enough to effectively deter russians.
However, the situation may change now, as the russian federation "officially" annexed four regions of Ukraine. Still, the transfer of ATACMS currently poses "low reward and high risk" as of now, says one of the CNN sources.
As Defense Express earlier reported, there is a reason why russian threats are nothing more than bluff and there is no actual threat to the United States or any other NATO country, perfectly explained by the Defense News magazine. Moreover, even without the most far-reaching variant, there are still options to provide some of the ATACMS missiles with a firing range of less than 300 km which would still be a significant upgrade to Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities.
Read more: Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Told What to Prepare for in 2023: Pragmatic and Straightforward Talk on How to Neutralize Kremlin’s Trump Card
