The United States is preparing to approve the sending of advanced missile systems to Ukraine, as part of an expansion of military and security assistance to the country. The announcement is expected to be made sometime next week, according to CNN.
Top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodomyr Zelensky, have been calling for the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, to be dispatched for weeks. It is an American-developed multiple rocket launcher that can launch up to 12 missiles in one minute. These systems can also fire rockets over hundreds of kilometres, far beyond any systems Ukraine already has. According to the Ukrainians, this could be a game-changer in the war against Russia.
And for good reason: the country would be able to bomb the Russian positions over a long distance, up to 300 kilometers. It could also target the Russian Navy which fires cruise missiles from the Black Sea and blocks Ukrainian ports.
On the Russian side, the Kremlin pressed for the United States not to give its missile system to the Ukrainian army. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Thursday that doing so would be a “big step towards an unacceptable escalation”. The United States was also afraid that Moscow would see in this delivery too great a provocation.
Impressive damage
On Twitter, the Ukrainian Defense Minister posted a video to show the damage suffered by the MLRS. “This is what the biggest and most horrible war of the 21st century looks like,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready to fight back,” he continued, explaining that for that the country needed an MLRS. “Immediately.”