More than an official familiar with the discussion told CNN that in order to overcome the Biden administration's boycott of providing it with a new powerful long-range rocket system, the Ukrainian government is now providing the United States with a comprehensive and ongoing visibility of the Russian target list to the United States.
Important reason: significant transparency essentially gives the United States a veto on Ukraine against Russia, aiming to convince the government to provide key weapons that will not lead to attacks within Russia. The United States is worried that this will escalate the war and directly lead to a conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The focus of the debate is the Army's tactical missile system (ATACMS), which can fly about 200 miles (300 kilometers), which is about four times the distance of the rocket used by the HIMARS mobile system that the United States began launching to Ukraine four months ago.
Despite Ukraine's recommendations, the Biden administration has not approved new long-range ATACMS weapons and believes that the HIMARS system currently owned by Ukraine is performing well. In fact, on Wednesday, the government announced that it would provide 18 more HIMARSs to Ukraine, bringing the total to more than 30 US systems. There are also concerns within the government that providing long-range ATACMS weapons will cross the red line in Moscow's eyes, which will make the United States a "direct side of the conflict" but the red line becomes even more blurred as Russia annexes four Ukrainian territories on Friday. The United States has said it will support the use of Western weapons in these regions even if Russia now regards it as part of its official territory.
Nevertheless, the idea of playing a more active role in the discussion of Ukraine’s targets has increased the U.S. concerns about being seen as more involvement than it hopes.
