Additional Coverage:
- Ukraine’s invasion of Russia would be going even better if the West ended its weapons restrictions: war experts (newsbreak.com)
An image released by the Ukrainian Air Force captures the deployment of a Storm Shadow missile. This month, military analysts noted that Ukraine’s ongoing offensive in Russia’s Kursk region could be more effective if Western allies allowed more freedom in the use of supplied long-range weaponry.
As detailed in a report by Business Insider, Ukrainian military forces made an unexpected incursion into southwestern Russia on August 6, seizing control of nearly 500 square miles of territory. The operation has been touted as a strategic success, enabling Ukraine to assert dominance and causing considerable embarrassment to Russia.
However, experts argue that the campaign’s impact would be significantly amplified if Ukraine were permitted to target inside Russia with advanced long-range missiles provided by its allies, including the US. Rajan Menon, from Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, explained that using these weapons on a larger scale could severely disrupt Russian logistics and supplies.
According to Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike crucial infrastructure in Russia could hinder Russian military movements, enhancing the effectiveness of the Kursk campaign.
Restrictions remain on Ukraine’s use of some potent weapons like the Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS missiles, which limits its ability to target key Russian facilities. George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, emphasized that easing these limitations would significantly aid Ukraine’s military efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly urged allies to lift these restrictions, stating that the need for the incursion was partly due to the existing constraints. He also mentioned that the offensive was designed to create a buffer zone to mitigate further Russian aggression into adjacent Ukrainian regions.
The incursion has showcased Ukraine’s capability to challenge Russian forces and has disproven the apprehension among Western countries about potential Russian escalation if their strategic thresholds were tested. However, the ultimate outcomes of this fast-evolving military operation remain uncertain.