Ukraine is using U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) against Russia to decimate sensitive sites deep behind enemy lines. A video of a recent Ukrainian attack shows four ATACMS launchers, each firing two long-range missiles.
Videos circulating on Russian social media show the impact of those missiles. One video, taken from the window of a nearby building, shows flames lighting up the sky while the smoke billows.
The suspected target was the Russian Center for Long Range Space Communications in the northwest part of the Crimean Peninsula. When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow was extremely happy to see the facility — known as NIP-16 — returning to Russian control.
It’s an absolutely critical asset to both Russia’s military communications, and its ability to monitor activities and conduct missions in space. The giant ground arrays help Russia communicate with its satellites, track potential nuclear threats and coordinate much of its military operations in the region.
Satellite imagery from NASA shows two large fires burning on the same coordinates where the NIP-16 facility is located. Much of modern weaponry is dependent on satellites, from targeting and acquisition to simple communication with troops over the horizon. Satellites make it possible. So, hampering Russia’s ability to talk to those satellites is an obvious motivating factor for the strike on NIP-16.
So far, neither Moscow, Kiev nor Washington are commenting on the strike. Moscow is saying plenty about another ATACMS attack in Crimea, however.
On Sunday, June 23, Russia said its air defense systems intercepted four ATACMS missiles in the skies over a beach in Sevastopol. The Kremlin said the missiles were loaded with cluster munitions, and when they exploded, it caused a fifth missile to detonate in mid-air.
Moscow said the falling debris killed four people and injured 151 more. Some were simply on vacation in an illegally seized territory while the largest land war in Europe since World War II rages around them.
The Institute for the Study of War said Russia purposefully puts high-value targets near civilian sites in an attempt to thwart a Ukrainian strike. These tactics are similar to those seen by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
While Ukraine may have launched the missiles, Russia said it’s the United States who is ultimately responsible for the strikes. The Russian Ministry of Defence said U.S. specialists had set the missiles’ flight coordinates on the basis of information from U.S. spy satellites, meaning Washington was directly responsible.
“Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out,” the ministry said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
