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Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the delivery of the US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to Ukraine, calling it an “additional threat” in the conflict.
“Firstly, this of course causes harm and creates an additional threat. Secondly, we will of course be able to repel these attacks. War is war,” Putin said on Wednesday.
“But most importantly, it fundamentally lacks the capacity to change the situation on the line of contact at all … This is another mistake by the United States.”
Ukraine had repeatedly asked the US administration for the ATACMS in order to disrupt Russian supply lines and bases in Russian-occupied territory that were beyond the range of shorter-range missiles.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that the Ukrainian army used the ATACMS in an attack that reportedly destroyed nine Russian helicopters as well as ammunition, an air defense system and other assets at two airfields in Russia-occupied regions. It was one of the most damaging attacks on Russia’s air assets since the begining of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Putin said that Washington was wading deeper into the conflict by supplying Ukraine with the ATACMS.
“A mistake of a larger scale, as yet invisible but still of great importance, is that the United States is becoming more and more personally drawn into this conflict,” he said.
“And let no one say that they have nothing to do with this. We believe they do.”
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