Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Saturday (June 25) released video showing Ukrainian soldiers using a U.S. long-range weapon system that Kyiv hopes can help turn the tide on Russia's special military operation, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov confirmed on Thursday (June 22) the arrival of U.S. supplies of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). He did not say how many of the systems had arrived.
Ukraine says it needs the HIMARS systems to better match the range of Russian rocket systems that it says are being extensively used to pummel Ukrainian positions in Donbas.
Moscow's forces are advancing in Ukraine's east in a bid to capture the industrial heartland known as the Donbas where Ukraine fears some of its troops could be encircled in a Russian pincer.
Washington has said it has received assurances from Kyiv that those longer-range weapons would not be used to attack Russian territory, fearing an escalation of the conflict.
Moscow has warned it will strike targets in Ukraine which they "have not yet been hitting" if the West supplies longer-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
