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Democracy Dies in Darkness

U.S. in no hurry to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles

Kyiv says it needs ATACMS, but the Pentagon says it doesn’t have enough to spare and Ukraine doesn’t really need them

Updated July 23, 2023 at 2:06 p.m. EDT|Published July 22, 2023 at 12:52 p.m. EDT
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Kyiv on Wednesday. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)
8 min

The Biden administration is holding firm, for now at least, on its refusal to send long-range Army missiles to Ukraine despite mounting pressure from U.S. lawmakers and pleas from the government in Kyiv, according to U.S. officials.

Disappointment at the slow pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against entrenched Russian forces and a newly equivocal tone by President Biden have led to widespread speculation that the missiles will soon follow the path taken by other U.S. weapons systems that were first denied but ultimately approved during the 17 months of the war.