The Ukrainian Armed Forces reportedly efficiently focused a Russian command facility close to Novopetrivka within the disputed Donetsk area on the evening of February 24, which was achieved utilizing U.S.-supplied ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles. The Common Workers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the goal was an auxiliary command publish of the Russian fifth Army, marking the primary confirmed use of ATACMS for an prolonged interval following a number of reviews of extreme shortages. Ukrainian models launched close to simultaneous assaults on ammunition depots, unmanned aerial automobile management factors, and a separate command-and-observation publish in Donetsk. The assault on the auxiliary command publish was reportedly a part of a broader effort to disrupt Russian command-and-control networks and degrade operational coordination.
Ukraine first obtained ATACMS in early October 2023, with their first confirmed fight use occurring on the evening of October 16. U.S. officers the next day acknowledged that ATACMS had been supplied and already employed. Deliveries have been made following the failure of enormous scale Ukrainian offensives that have been launched in opposition to Russian positions in June, with ATACMS offering an uneven technique of countering bigger and extra succesful Russian frontline models after the Ukrainian Army suffered excessive losses over a number of months. The ballistic missile system has been used efficiently to neutralise a number of Russian targets, with examples having included the destruction of launchers and radars from S-400 air defence programs, the destruction of different radar programs, the neutralisation of Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers, and the destruction of excessive worth fight plane on their runways. The place prior assaults have been targeted on targets in disputed areas, the primary ATACMS strike on internationally recognised Russian territory was carried out in November 2025.
The earlier confirmed employment of ATACMS missiles by Ukrainian forces was recorded on November 18, when Ukrainian strikes focused navy services in Russia’s Voronezh area, which means the most recent is the primary confirmed strike delivered utilizing the programs in over three months. America has confronted shortages of the programs, and is delivering them to a number of shoppers internationally together with the Republic of China Armed Forces, the place they’re being deployed below joint American command going through the Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Army. Whereas HIMARS rocket artillery programs beforehand supplied to Ukraine have been restricted of their capability to focus on frontline positions, as Russian digital warfare programs severely eroded their reliability, ATACMS can be utilized to strike strategic targets and command and management services far behind the frontlines which have much less digital defences. It stays unsure on what scale the US could have replenished Ukrainain stockpiles of the missiles.
