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Unlike cruise missiles that Ukraine already has in its arsenal, such as the Storm Shadows sent from Britain, ATACMS can accelerate to three times the speed of sound, making them difficult for air defence systems to intercept.
Kyiv has consistently put Washington under pressure to supply the missiles. However, Mr Biden has proved reluctant fearing the move could provoke Russia and cause the war to escalate.
After months of resistance from Right-wing Republicans, the US Congress passed a foreign aid bill this week that included $61 billion of funding earmarked for Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Mr Biden said he would send over an initial $1 billion support package “in the next few hours”, including shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles, 155-millimetre shells, Javelin anti-tank missiles and cluster munitions.
The US is providing more long-range ATACMS in the new military aid package, however officials would not provide the exact number of missiles given last month or the number that would be sent as part of the next shipment.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, confirmed that ATACMS were part of the package, which he praised as the “exact types of weapons that our warriors require”.
Grateful to Biden
He said on a video uploaded to social media: “I am grateful to President Biden, the US Congress and all Americans who realise the need to take the wind out of Putin’s sails, not to submit to him, as only then will there be fewer threats to freedom.”
Mr Biden said the $1bn package would prevent Russia from conquering Ukraine and attacking a Nato member state, which would drag the US into a war.
“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership in the world, and everyone knows it,” he said on Thursday.
“In the next few hours – literally, the few hours – we’re going to begin sending in equipment to Ukraine for air defence; munitions for artillery, for rocket systems; and armoured vehicles.”
He also hit out at “MAGA Republicans” in Congress for blocking the aid while “Ukraine has been running out of artillery shells and ammunition”.
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