Zelensky’s US trip ends without public ATACMS commitment despite mounting speculation
Mike Brest
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spent this week in the United States but left without a public commitment from the Biden administration on one of its most pressing military requests.
Zelensky, who spoke at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City and traveled to Washington, D.C., met with congressional, military, and White House officials, and while the Biden administration announced new military aid valued at $325 million to coincide with his meeting with President Joe Biden, it did not include Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS.
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Ukrainian leaders have implored the U.S. to provide them with the long-range missiles since last year. These weapons could allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition stores, and logistics routes far behind Russian front lines and dug-in defenses in Russian-occupied Ukrainian and Russian territory.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, the day of Biden and Zelensky’s meeting, that Biden “has determined that he would not provide ATACMS, but he has also not taken it off the table in the future. I don’t have anything to announce about that today.”
A day later, however, anonymous officials said that the U.S. would provide ATACMS to Ukraine, though the National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment. “Three U.S. officials and a congressional official” reportedly told NBC that Biden had assured Zelensky that “a small number of long-range missiles” would be provided.
U.S. policy has been not to enable strikes within Russian territory while maintaining that Ukraine had the authority to use the weapons provided to the country however it sees fit.
Also this week, defense officials from roughly 50 countries met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the monthly meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which meets to discuss Ukraine’s most urgent needs. It was the first contact group meeting since Rustem Umerov took over as Ukraine’s minister of defense following the removal of Oleksii Reznikov.
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“If they requested it, they believe that they need it,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said when asked if Ukraine’s request for ATACMS was legitimate. “What we have been focused on and what we remain focused on is what Ukraine’s most urgent needs are,” which he said were air defense systems.
Biden has denied several Ukrainian requests over the 19 months of war and has changed his mind later on, including with tanks, fourth-generation fighter aircraft, and the Patriot missile defense system. In each case, the president decided after months of declining the request to fulfill them, but critics argue that this routine only holds up Ukraine’s ability to change the battlefield in its favor.