Minister: U.S. long-range missile systems have arrived in Ukraine

• High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a potent long-range missile system 
• Moscow’s soldiers are moving eastward in Ukraine in an effort to seize the Donbas industrial region
• According to Ukraine, it needs the HIMARS systems to more effectively counter Russian rocket systems

High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a potent long-range missile system that Kyiv thinks can help turn the tide on Russia’s invasion, were supplied by the United States, Ukraine announced on Thursday.

Moscow’s soldiers are moving eastward in Ukraine in an effort to seize the Donbas industrial region, where Ukraine fears that some of its troops could become trapped in a Russian pincer.

“Thank you to my U.S. colleague and friend Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted of the HIMARS delivery.

He made no mention of how many systems had actually arrived.

According to Ukraine, it needs the HIMARS systems to more effectively counter Russian rocket systems, which it claims are frequently deployed to shell Ukrainian positions in the Donbas.

Washington has claimed that Kyiv has given it guarantees that the longer-ranged weaponry won’t be utilised to attack Russian territory out of concern for a conflict escalation.

If the West gives Ukraine longer-range missiles to use in highly accurate mobile rocket launchers, Moscow has threatened to strike targets in Ukraine that they “have not yet been hitting.” Max Hunder reported; Alessandra Prentice wrote; Tom Balmforth and Nick Macfie edited.

For the latest International News Follow BOL News on Google News. Read more on Latest International news on oldsite.bolnews.com