Russian troops have been “bled dry” by Ukraine’s use of the U.S.-supplied ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) in the war, a Russian military officer has said.
Svyatoslav Golikov, an instructor of Russia’s Storm-Z penal units, took to his Telegram channel on Tuesday to outline the impact the weapons are having on troops in combat. He said ATACMS, which are capable of reaching targets 100 miles or more away, are creating large-scale casualties, and this is disrupting the execution of Russian operations. Newsweek has yet to verify Golikov’s comments independently.
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The U.S. agreed in September to supply Ukraine with ATACMS. Given their long-range, Kyiv’s forces are able to strike targets further away than missiles from the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and M270 multiple-launch rocket systems.
Last month, Kyiv destroyed more than a dozen Russian helicopters when it used cluster versions of ATACMS missiles to strike Russian military bases in the Zaporizhzhia city of Berdiansk and in Russian-controlled Luhansk City. It marked the first use of the weapons in Ukraine.
“It is cluster shells that are now knocking out a huge mass of our infantry with the layering of a number of negative factors,” wrote Golikov. “The infantry suffers heavy excess losses directly on the battlefield, as a result of which the execution of combat missions is disrupted, and in addition to this there is an overstrain of evacuation logistics and an overload of the military medical infrastructure.”
Russian troops are returned to the front lines in Ukraine with shrapnel still stuck in their bodies, Golikov said. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Golikov added: “The rapid depletion of infantry units, coupled with the overload of hospitals, leads to the fact that people are massively returned to the battle, primarily underrated, and often with small damaging elements in the soft tissues not removed.”
Golikov said that, while there are no radical shifts in the front line, and little breakthroughs from Ukraine, Russia is also having little success in the war. “And there is a price. [A] very high and sad [price],” he added.
“Exhausting and bleeding the enemy on the defensive, and then collapsing the front with powerful counterattacks would be an excellent plan if implemented,” Golikov said. “But in fact, along the way, we ourselves were pretty exhausted and bled dry.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said ATACMS posed an “additional threat” to Russian forces but that “we, of course, will be able to repel these attacks.”
The weapons will not be “able to change at all [the] situation on the line of contact. Impossible,” Putin was quoted by Russia state news agency Tass as saying.
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