While several ‘attractive’ targets fall well within range, deep strikes by Kyiv into Russian territory are unlikely to alter the military equation, experts say.
In recent weeks, Kyiv’s allies, particularly the United States and Britain, have appeared increasingly open to the notion of letting Ukraine use long-range missile systems supplied by the West to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Geopolitical implications aside, some experts believe that, given current realities on the battlefield, such a scenario is unlikely to turn the tide of the conflict in Ukraine’s favor.
“Russia is making advances, slow but relatively steady advances, in the east,” Robert Peters, a defense policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, told The Epoch Times.
According to Peters, who specializes in nuclear deterrence and missile defense, hard-pressed Ukrainian forces must first “overcome Russian advances, and then—ideally—stop them, before they begin pushing them back.”
Asked if the use of Western long-range missile systems would be enough to achieve this, Peters said: “The short answer is ‘no’.”
For the past several weeks, Russian forces have made gains on the eastern front, especially in Donetsk, where they recently captured a string of villages.
They now appear poised to take the town of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian transit hub, the fall of which is expected to lead to further Russian advances westward.
In hopes of turning back the advance, Kyiv has continued to urge its Western allies to lift a longstanding ban on the Ukrainian military’s use of long-range missile systems to hit targets in Russia.
“We need to have this long-range capability—not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine but also on Russian territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month at a meeting of Kyiv’s allies in Germany.
Kyiv is particularly keen to employ the American-built ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System), which is launched from the ground, and the United Kingdom-manufactured Storm Shadow missile system, which is typically fired from an aircraft.
According to Abdullah Agar, a Turkish military expert, the most advanced versions of these two systems can deliver “highly accurate strikes” at distances of more than 300 miles.
By Adam Morrow
