Ukraine’s defense minister confirmed commitment not to strike russia with HIMARS

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov confirmed that Ukraine undertook not to use HIMARS on targets on the territory of the russian federation.

Reznikov said this in an interview with the BBC.

"We made a commitment not use high-precision weapons against russian facilities on the territory of the russian federation. We have confirmed this everywhere. Even I personally did so in a letter addressed to my colleague, the head of the Pentagon, that we will use American weapons to deter the enemy and de-occupy temporarily occupied lands only on the territory of Ukraine," Reznikov said.

To the question of whether the commitment of the Ukrainian side extends to Crimea, Reznikov answered as follows: "I told (US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – ed.) that we had enough strategic facilities in the Ukrainian territories occupied by the russians. He answered: we understood you."

As Rubryka reported earlier today, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, is confident that Western partners will provide Ukraine with rockets for the HIMARS missile systems, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 300 kilometers; he described them as a game-changer in the war.

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Ukraine has used HIMARS in the last three weeks to target russian ammunition depots behind the frontline. The US had been hesitant to send HIMARs, which have an 80km range and GPS-guided munitions. Their concern was that this would escalate the war. 

On June 1, US President Joe Biden announced the provision of a new security aid package to Ukraine, which includes highly mobile HIMARS missile and artillery systems.

These HIMARS are equipped with missiles capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 80 km, but potentially the systems can strike at a distance of 300 km.

At the beginning of July, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilov, said that Ukraine received 9 HIMARS missile systems and similar systems from the US and its allies. Still, it needs dozens more for a counteroffensive.