Iran Press/ Europe: " The first strike was about 100 miles inside Crimea’s border on the morning of April 17, targeting a Russian military airfield, according to the officials. The Ukrainian military used the U.S.-provided Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, for the second time Tuesday night, targeting Russian forces east of the southeastern Ukrainian town of Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, officials said.
The Biden administration has not previously acknowledged sending ATACMS to Ukraine, but a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed that the U.S. has provided them. They were part of the $300 million military aid package unveiled March 12.
The NSC spokesperson said the administration did not reveal at the time that it was sending Ukraine the long-range missiles for operational security reasons. President Joe Biden directed his national security team to send the ATACMS to Ukraine secretly, the spokesperson said.
The missiles have a range up to 300 kilometers (about 187 miles) and allow Ukraine to strike the Russian military throughout Crimea and in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine that had been difficult to reach. The U.S.-provided ATACMS included both warheads with cluster munitions and with unitary blast fragmentation.
The revelation that Ukraine has used the long-range ATACMS came as Biden signed into law a foreign aid package providing billions of dollars in weapons and support to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The measure, which will provide about $61 billion for Ukraine, was hung up for months due to opposition in the Republican-led House.
This is while, In the meantime, various groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have called on the Biden administration to end the Israeli regime’s genocide in the Gaza Strip instead of waging war across West Asia, citing the latest strikes in Iraq and Syria as proof of “the total failure” of US foreign policy in the region.
The Biden administration was already preparing a military aid package for Ukraine worth more than $1 billion, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning. It will include a range of equipment that the U.S. has already provided Ukraine, including ammunition, stinger missiles, artillery rounds, infantry fighting vehicles and other military equipment, the officials said.
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