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A Ukrainian military commander operating near Russia’s border describes how his forces were watching as Russia amassed huge forces, forcing them to wait for troops to attack across the border. He said he had no choice but to do so.
“There were a lot of Russians there and we could have destroyed them along the way, but we don’t have a lot of ATACMS and they’ve banned the use of ATACMS over there,” he said. london times.
Drago, the special forces commander of Ukraine’s Kraken detachment, was redeployed from the eastern Donbas region to Kharkov in April with his unit and other special forces to strengthen Ukrainian forces there, according to the Times. It is said that
But instead of attacking the Russians, he and his troops were forced to watch as troops gathered on their side of the border, the paper said.
“We had to wait for them to pass,” he said, referring to U.S. policy that bars Ukrainian forces from using U.S.-supplied weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
The United States and other Western countries have supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine since the war began, but have long held a line against using them against Russia for fear of escalating the conflict.
Department of Defense and U.S. Army officials have repetition said The United States opposes Ukraine’s use of weapons it has supplied to attack targets on Russian territory.
But the rules took a “heavy toll” on Drago’s troops, leading to Russian forces surrounding them and attacking them from behind, he told The Times.
On May 10, Russian forces ambushed a nearby position occupied by another unit, ambushing Drago’s group from behind, the paper reported.
Drago’s crew of six split into two groups and were soon surrounded and pinned down in a bunker with two bunkers housing three soldiers each.
Drago ultimately called for artillery fire, killing at least three Russian soldiers and forcing Russian forces to retreat, he told the outlet.
According to Drago, “If we had ATACMS, none of this would have happened.”
Ukrainian officials echoed Drago’s comments about fighting with one hand tied behind his back.
Oleksandr Litvinenko, Secretary of the State Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, told the Financial Times This week, the United States said Ukraine should lift a “totally unfair” ban on using its weapons to attack targets inside Russia and prevent a new offensive in Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the New York Times The Kremlin argued that Ukraine’s inability to launch U.S.-supplied missiles and weapons against military targets inside Russia gave the Kremlin a “huge advantage” in a cross-border war.
President Zelensky told Reuters on Monday that Ukraine was negotiating with Western countries to lift the ban, but so far the talks “have not yielded any positive results.”