ATACMS shelling will likely prove to be impossible task for Russian army – advisor to Ukraine Army chief

Maintaining an army that does not control the skies and will be under ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) fire at any location that Russian forces occupy in Ukraine will likely prove to be an impossible task for the Russian army.

Dan Rice, a U.S. combat veteran and Special Advisor to Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

In his opinion, Russia is having more and more difficulties conducting war in Ukraine, which has done an excellent job of attacking command and control, supply depots and concentrated troop formations.

Rice added that the logistics system of the Russian army requires centralized depots, due to the "palletized" manner of logistics, which makes warehouses better targets for HIMARS or M777 precision guided strikes.

"If, and hopefully when, Ukraine gets the ATACMS munitions, there will be nowhere within Ukraine for Russia to hide neither their command-and-control systems nor supply depots," Zaluzhnyi's advisor said.

Rice also noted that ATACMS are fired from the standard HIMARS M142 platform, or the M270 MLRS platform and have a range of 300 km.

"It would be agreed between NATO and Ukraine that no ATACMS could be fired outside of Ukraine territory. Maintaining an army that does not control the skies, and will be under fire at any location that they occupy in Ukraine, will likely prove to be an impossible task for the Russian army," he said.