The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday passed a resolution to pressure President Biden to escalate US involvement in the Ukraine war by supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles.
The bill calls on Biden to immediately arm Ukraine with the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), munitions with a range of up to 190 miles. The ATACMS can be fired by the HIMARS rocket systems that the US has been providing Ukraine.
Most of the ammunition Kyiv has for use with the HIMARS has a range of about 50 miles, although the US has also pledged Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), which can hit targets up to 94 miles away. Russia said in March that it had downed a GLSDB for the first time.
Providing ATACMS would give Ukraine the ability to hit more targets inside Russia. The Biden administration claims that it doesn’t want Kyiv using US weapons to hit Russian territory, but the restriction doesn’t apply to Crimea.
