Redeployment of Russian air assets does not remove utility of using ATACMS against other military targets – ISW

Ukrainian long-range strikes against Russian military targets in the rear are crucial, and the redeployment of Russian air assets from Russian air bases in range of ATACMS does not remove the utility of using ATACMS against other Russian military targets.

This is said in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

“Ukrainian long-range strikes against Russian military targets within Russia’s rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities throughout the theater, and the lifting of restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western-provided weapons would allow Ukrainian forces to strike a wide range of significant targets undergirding Russia’s war effort,” the analysts said.

Read also: Moscow not going to give up its offensive in Donetsk region to stop Ukrainian forces in Kursk region - ISW

According to an unnamed senior Biden administration national security official, Ukrainian strikes with Western-provided weapons against targets within Russia would not be effective because the Russian military has redeployed military aircraft from Russian airbases near Ukraine — but this assessment ignores how Russian forces are leveraging sanctuary space in deep rear areas within Russia for a wide array of infrastructure besides airfields to support military operations against Ukraine.

“The redeployment of Russian air assets from Russian air bases in range of ATACMS does not remove the utility of using ATACMS against other Russian military targets,” the analysts said.

ISW assesses that there are at least 250 military and paramilitary objects in Russia within range of ATACMS missiles that the United States has provided Ukraine.

“Only 17 of these 250 objects are airfields, and it is unlikely that the Russian military has redeployed assets away from all the other 233 objects to the same degree as it has reportedly done with aviation assets,” the analysts said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in his speech at the meeting of heads of foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine "War Diplomacy: Resilience, Weapons, Victory,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said that lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western-supplied long-range weapons would help change the situation in the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s favor.