Those long-range, high-tech missiles provide Kyiv with the opportunity to target locations well beyond the front lines. The missiles penetrate both the occupied areas in Ukraine and, in fact, for the first time, deep into Russia to strike at the places the Russian army has.
The U.S. approval to attack Russian soil was a huge change in the game. In a lot of previous conflicts, the U.S. administration used to choose a different way. They were frightened that such attacks might escalate the conflict into larger hazards.
That calculation was transformed once it had come to light that North Korean soldiers were collaborating with Russian troops in the Kursk province, and, at the same time, there were growing doubts about the continuation of the decision to provide military aid to Kyiv by the American political authority. As the BBC disseminated the news, the decision was most commonly interpreted as being made to support Ukraine’s position ahead of any possible change in US policy.
Ukraine did not delay in testing its new range. Its initial confirmed ATACMS attack within Russia struck a missile storage facility near Karachev in the Bryansk province—about 70 miles from the border. The explosion obliterated huge caches of artillery shells, anti-aircraft missiles, and other ordnance, with drones said to have assisted the mission. Russia said most of the missiles were shot down, but video evidence indicated the facility took serious damage.
The attacks didn’t end there. Ukrainian troops subsequently struck Russian military targets in the Kursk region, including a battalion of S-400 surface-to-air missiles around Lotarevka—Russia’s most sophisticated air defense system and its response to the U.S. Patriot.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that two out of five incoming missiles penetrated the defenses, destroying a radar and causing casualties. Another attack was made on the Khalino air base, although Moscow played down the extent of the damage. For the Kremlin to publicly acknowledge any losses at all is unusual—and telling.
In Crimea, ATACMS have been equally disconcerting. A minimum of ten were employed to strike S-300 and S-400 sites throughout the peninsula, destroying or knocking out systems and killing operators. Independent satellite imagery verified the damage, including at the strategically significant node of Dzhankoy. The strikes compelled Russia to relocate its air defenses further from the front line, making it more difficult to resupply them and leaving some less defended.
Russia’s reply of punches has been both verbal and artillery. On the ground, it has heightened missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities, targeting energy infrastructure—a campaign Amnesty International has dubbed a war crime for deliberately targeting civilian essentials.
Politically, the Kremlin has cranked up its nuclear threats. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that NATO-supplied missile attacks on Russian soil might qualify under Moscow’s new doctrine as nuclear retaliation targets, which now include attacks by non-nuclear nations supported by nuclear powers.
Strategically, ATACMS have disrupted Russia’s feeling of security. With a range of 300 kilometers, they place once “safe” targets—airfields, command centers, supply depots—firmly within reach. This has caused Moscow to spread equipment, push aircraft further into its own country, and increase air defenses. For Ukraine, the payoff on the battlefield is obvious: interdicting logistics, weakening defenses, and boosting morale at a time when combat in the east is particularly fierce.
Nevertheless, Western analysts warn against hyping the missiles’ effect too much. Ukraine’s ATACMS supply is limited, and Russia is already reshaping its tactics. The missiles will not determine the war by themselves, and U.S. political shifts can restrict future shipments.
Despite that, their deployment has redefined the limits of this war. The introduction of ATACMS demonstrated how a single change in military policy can remake strategy, change calculations of risk, and introduce new unpredictability into a conflict already anything but predictable.
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