Ukraine will not use new US long-range projectiles to attack Russia – Defence Minister

Ukraine will not use the long-range weapons pledged by the USA to launch attacks on the territory of Russia.

Source: Oleksii Reznikov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, at a press conference on Sunday, 5 February, as reported by European Pravda, with reference to Reuters

"We always make an official declaration to our partners that we will not use the weapons provided by our foreign partners to launch attacks on Russian territory. We only launch attacks on Russian units deployed in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine," Reznikov said.

The US’s $2.175-billion military aid package for Ukraine includes long-range shells with a 150-km range. However, ATACMS missiles, which are capable of shooting ground targets within a range of 300 km, have not been included in the latest package.

The HIMARS multiple-launch missile systems currently used by the Ukrainian military are reportedly able to hit targets from a distance of about 80 km.

Ukraine has been asking the US for long-range projectiles - specifically, for ATACMS - for a while now, arguing that the weaponry that Ukraine has in service at the moment is not able to reach and destroy the Russian occupying forces’ logistics centres on Ukrainian territory.

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