Western-supplied, long-range weapons in Ukraine are “raising the stakes” of the nearly 2-year-old conflict, Russia’s foreign minister has said, as the grueling war shows few signs of coming to an end in the new year.
“Despite the failure of the ‘counteroffensive’ of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the West continues to pump Kyiv with weapons, raising the stakes by using increasingly lethal and long-range systems in the Ukrainian conflict,” Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state news agency Tass, published on Thursday.
Western countries such as the U.S. have funneled tens of billions of dollars of security aid to Ukraine in the more than 22 months of all-out war. A significant chunk of this aid has been weaponry, which Ukraine’s allies hope will stave off Russian advances and allow Kyiv to push Moscow’s forces eastward.
Western countries were initially reluctant to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for fear of escalating the conflict and bringing NATO closer to direct confrontation with Moscow.
“NATO weapons are being supplied, including cluster munitions and depleted uranium shells,” Lavrov said.
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The U.S. provided Ukraine with a first round of cluster munitions, known as dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or DPICMs, shortly after Ukraine kicked off its summer counteroffensive earlier this year. The weapons are known for being highly effective in military terms, spreading submunitions over a large area and doing more damage than a single strike.
However, this very attribute makes them controversial. They can be lethal for civilians years after a conflict ends, and are banned in more than 120 countries under the Oslo Convention. The U.S., Ukraine and Russia are not signatories to the agreement prohibiting their production, use or stockpiling.
Ukraine then debuted a cluster-munitions variant of the U.S. military’s long-range ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile System, to strike Russian military bases in Moscow-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk in mid-October. The strikes took out a slew of Russian helicopters and was an embarrassing loss for Moscow.
Russia has also used a variety of cluster munitions throughout its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. and the U.K. have sent depleted uranium shells to Ukraine with deliveries of Western-made tanks. They are kinetic rounds which do not explode, but penetrate a tank’s armor when fired at high speeds and can be used to engage enemies at a greater distance.
Depleted uranium munitions are “the most potent tank ammunition that’s around,” former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who previously commanded U.K. and NATO chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense forces, previously told Newsweek.
Alongside this aid, countries like Britain and France donated their long-range air-launched Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles.
The missiles are responsible for several high-profile successes for Ukraine. Kyiv used the cruise missiles to strike key Russian infrastructure in the annexed Crimean peninsula, and to damage Russia’s Rostov-on-Don submarine and the Minsk landing ship in mid-September.
On December 26, Kyiv used cruise missiles to strike Russia’s Novocherkassk landing ship in the eastern Crimean base of Feodosia. Ukrainian officials suggested Storm Shadow or SCALP missiles were responsible.
“Western weapons, plus well-planned tactical operations, lead to results,” said Ukrainian air force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ihnat.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.