Lifting Western restrictions on the use of long-range weapons would allow Ukrainian forces to attack a wide range of significant targets supporting Russia’s war effort, the Institute for the Study of War reported this week.
Russia launched a combined wave of attacks against Ukraine for the second night in a row, with Monday’s being its largest airstrike since the start of the full-scale war, with more than 230 missiles and drones.
Renewed calls for restrictions on the use of long-range weapons to be lifted
The attacks have renewed calls for western allies to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
According to Fabian René Hoffmann, Investigatedr Doctoral degree from the University of Oslo in the Nuclear Project of the capital of Norway: “if you want to effectively and efficiently defend this type of attacks, you have to go after the shooter, you have to shoot down the launchers that deploy these missile systems and you cannot wait for them to reach our airspace to counter them.”
As reported by Institute for the Study of War In his ‘X’ account, “there are at least 250 military and paramilitary objects in Russia within range of the ATACMS missiles that the United States has provided to Ukraine.”
Russia may cause a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented scale in Europe
Hoffmann urges decision-makers to weigh the risks: “Are they willing to risk an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Europe? “Or do we assume those residual risks in terms of escalation management and potential Russian responses and allow Ukraine to ultimately employ these Western weapons systems against Russian targets deeper inside the Russian homeland?”
Currently, Washington only allows attacks with HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) provided by the United States and equipped with GMLRS (Long Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System), allowing Ukraine to attack, at most, only 20 of the 250 targets it could attack with ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System, a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, SSM).
Lifting restrictions would force the Kremlin to reconfigure its assets
He Institute for the Study of War says Ukrainian forces do not have to attack every single Russian military and paramilitary object within range of Western-provided weapons to begin generating significant operational pressures on the Russian military.
Lifting current Western restrictions would create a serious Ukrainian threat of long-range attack that would force the Kremlin to make a decision and would likely prompt the Russian military command to significantly reconfigure assets throughout the deep rear to protect against Ukrainian attacks.
