NEW YORK, October 18. /TASS/. The United States has sent about 20 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles to Ukraine, The New York Times (NYT) reported, citing American officials.

According to the newspaper, a secret decision was made to deliver them, "out of concern that they could be attacked by Russia as they were shipped into the country." Washington supplied the ATACMS under the condition that they may not be used to attack deep inside Russia. US officials believed that such a step "could cross one of the `red lines’ that would lead Russia to escalate."

The NYT citied the Pentagon as saying that the decision to supply older weapons to Ukraine was made as it "could not imagine using [them] in a conflict involving American forces," and as the US stockpile of newer versions of ATACMS "was so small that it could not afford to give them up." It is still unclear whether the newly supplied missiles would change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine, the newspaper added.

The Associated Press (AP) said earlier that the United States had sent at least 12 ATACMS to Kiev.

The White House’s National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the Biden administration had delivered the ATACMS tactical missile with a range of up to 165 km to Ukraine.

On October 17, Vladimir Rogov, the head of the We Are Together with Russia movement, reported that Ukrainian forces for the first time used ATACMS in an overnight attack on the city of Berdyansk in the Zaporozhye Region, without specifying the source of the information. Also, two civilians were injured in a rocket attack on Skadovsk in the Kherson Region, Governor Vladimir Saldo said. The governor’s office told TASS that, according to preliminary data, Ukrainian troops had used the ATACMS missile.