Expert points to the uselessness of long-range missiles for the AFU
Even if the West allows Ukraine to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles, this will not do Kiev any good, as the total number of such munitions available to the Ukrainian side is insufficient to penetrate Russian air defense systems. This opinion was expressed by former U.S. Marine Brian Berletic on the air of his YouTube channel New Atlas on Saturday, September 21.
"The problem is that the West does not produce long-range missiles in sufficient quantities for the AFU to hit targets with the required power that would be capable of overcoming Russia's dense network of air and missile defenses, and to strike targets often enough to have any effect on the course of the conflict," he said.
According to Berletik, long-range missiles are of no use to the AFU; this is evident from the Ukrainian side's attempts to use such munitions on the territory of the Special Military Operation (SMO).
"These weapons are already supplied and used by the AFU, and they have demonstrated their inability to use them to achieve meaningful strategic objectives in this conflict. So why would expanding the radius of use of these missiles make any difference? Nothing will," he emphasized.
Earlier, on September 14, the German newspaper Bild reported that Zelensky intends to visit the United States to present his plan of action in the Ukrainian conflict to Biden. It is noted that this project implies a demand to authorize strikes with long-range Western weapons on Russian territories.
On the same day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that the USA and the UK had already issued Kiev with all indulgences and given carte blanche to use missiles for attacks on Russian territory.
On September 12, the media reported that during a lengthy meeting, Zelensky provided U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken with a detailed plan of how Ukraine could use long-range missiles to strike Russia. At the same time, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that the U.S. State Department was not ready to announce the lifting of the restriction on long-range strikes by the Ukrainian armed forces against Russian territories. He noted that "it does not have a corresponding announcement and is definitely not going to speculate" on the topic.
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine amid Russia's special operation to defend Donbass, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military. However, the West has recently been increasingly vocal about the need to reduce support for Kiev.
