Launch in the air

USA soon to supply Kiev with long-range missiles

Ukraine now has F-16 jets in service.

(Bild: AP/Efrem Lukatsky)

According to insiders, the USA is close to an agreement on the delivery of long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, which could reach deep inside Russia. However, it is likely to be some time before the weapons are ready for use ...

According to several US insiders, the government in Kiev will have to wait several months for the missiles, as the USA still has to solve technical problems before a possible delivery. The decision should be announced in the fall.

Long-range missiles
The weapons are therefore "Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles" (JASSM), i.e. conventional air-to-surface cruise missiles with a medium to long range. They can be launched from aircraft towards the ground and hit targets around 370 kilometers away.

A delivery of JASSM missiles to Ukraine could significantly improve its strategic options and give it an advantage over Russia.

If the USA were to supply the long-range missiles, this could trigger a domino effect. In the past, countries such as Germany have already oriented themselves towards the scope of delivery of the Biden administration. Kiev has been calling for a broader weapons arsenal for months, as Ukraine is increasingly on the defensive - despite its own advances towards Russia.

Ukraine is clearly losing ground
According to calculations by the AFP news agency, the Russian army advanced more in the war in August than at any time since October 2022. As AFP calculated on the basis of data from the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on confirmed and claimed territorial gains, the Russian army took control of 477 square kilometers in Ukraine last month.

This is the largest Russian territorial gain since October 2022 and corresponds to more than 15 square kilometers per day in August. Russia recorded the territorial gains in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk in particular. By Sunday evening, the Russian army was only seven kilometers away from the city of Pokrovsk, which is considered a logistical hub of great strategic importance.

Moscow controls 18 percent of Ukraine
According to the report, the Russian army occupied a total of 66,266 square kilometers in Ukraine on Monday. Together with the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, the territorial gains confirmed or claimed by Russia amounted to 18 percent of Ukraine's territory in 2013.