U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at targets up to 80 kilometers away.
"We will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine," Biden wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times on May 31.
Biden said Russia's invasion of Ukraine will end through diplomacy, but the United States must provide significant weapons and ammunition to give Ukraine the highest leverage at the negotiating table.
The United States agreed to provide the high-mobility artillery rocket systems, known as Himars, after Ukraine gave "assurances" that it will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia, a senior administration official said.
The official told reporters that the Himars have a range longer than the howitzers currently deployed by Ukraine. They will be part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be unveiled on June 1.
The weapons package also includes ammunition, counter fire radars, a number of air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as anti-armor weapons, the administration official said.
But the Himars are the centerpiece of the package, and the pledge to send them comes as the Ukrainians are battling Russian artillery in the Donbas region.
Ukrainian forces could use the rocket systems to both intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in towns where fighting is intense, such as Syevyerodonetsk.
Russia has been making incremental progress as it tries to take the remaining sections of the Donbas not already controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
