Ukraine slows firing of missiles into Russia as Donald Trump prepares to take office

With much fanfare, Ukraine was granted permission to fire Western long-range missiles at Russian military targets more than a month ago. But after initially firing a flurry of them, Ukraine has already slowed their use.

Ukraine is running out of missiles. It also might be running out of time: President-elect Donald Trump has said publicly that allowing U.S.-made long-range missiles inside Russia was a big mistake.

So far, the missiles have been effective in limited ways, but they have not changed the war's trajectory, senior NATO officials said.


The war has also not escalated as some had feared. Although Russia launched a powerful new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile at a Ukrainian weapons facility after the first two volleys of Western long-range missiles, it has since responded to them with its usual mix of drones, missiles and threats.

Two U.S. officials said they believed Russia was trying to avoid escalating military operations in Ukraine, especially with the election of Trump, a longtime skeptic of the war, and given Russia's recent battlefield successes.

Adm. Rob Bauer, NATO's most senior military officer, said recently that the strikes by the long-range ballistic Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, had "seriously hit a number" of weapons factories and ammunition depots in Russia. He said that had forced Russia to move many logistics facilities farther back from the front.

The United States had long resisted sending Ukraine long-range ATACMS, with a range of 190 miles, fearing that their use deep inside nuclear-armed Russia would escalate the war.

In the spring, President Joe Biden relented. The administration shipped Ukraine as many as 500 missiles from Pentagon stockpiles, the U.S. officials said. While Ukraine couldn't use them in Russia, they fired them at targets in eastern Ukrainian territories controlled by Russia and in Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014 -- aiming at hardened command and control posts, weapons storage areas and some other bunkers.

U.S. and NATO officials said those strikes had been effective but also said that they felt Ukraine could have been more judicious in the number of missiles used and more selective with targeting.

It is unlikely that Trump will step in to fill the gap. He recently told Time magazine that he disagreed "very vehemently" with Ukraine's use of ATACMS in Russian territory.