The State Department confirmed Wednesday that the United States secretly sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as part of a March aid package, fulfilling a long-standing request from Kyiv.
“We did not announce this from the beginning to ensure the operational security of Ukraine at their request,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, adding that “the missiles arrived in Ukraine this month.”
Some Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles can hit targets up to 300 kilometers away, and a Defense Department spokesman confirmed that this was the long-range variant being supplied to Ukraine.
Last year, the White House said the United States had sent a shorter-range ATACMS variant that could travel 165 kilometers.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was planning to send more long-range missiles to Ukraine, but warned there was "no silver bullet."
The law, signed by Biden on Wednesday, comes after months of bitter debate among lawmakers over how or whether to help Ukraine defend against the Russian invasion that Moscow launched in February 2022.
A similar bill passed the Senate in February.
But the House stalled as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — heeding calls from former President Donald Trump and his hardliners — pressed Biden for concessions on immigration policy before Johnson suddenly reversed the situation.
The United States has been a key military sponsor of Ukraine, providing tens of billions of dollars in security assistance since the Russian invasion began.
However, divisions in Congress prevented large-scale financing of Kyiv for almost a year and a half.
Ukraine's military faces serious shortages of weapons and recruits as Moscow applies constant pressure from the east, and Sullivan said Wednesday that it is "certainly possible that Russia could make additional tactical gains in the coming weeks."
The bill Biden signed also provides much-needed humanitarian aid to Sudan, Haiti and the Gaza Strip, with the president calling on Israel to allow aid to quickly reach Palestinians in the war-torn coastal enclave.
“We're going to immediately provide that assistance and increase it… including food, medicine, clean water,” Biden said. "Israel must ensure that all this aid reaches the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip without delay."