Ukraine is urging the West to accelerate the supply of fighters and long-range weapons, just as the United States is considering sending ATACMS missiles to boost its counteroffensive on the eve of autumn, while being on alert for possible Russian attacks against energy infrastructure.

This Saturday, the American television network ABC affirmed that “it is likely” that the Government of President Joe Biden will send ATACMS to Ukraine.

“They are coming,” said one official who has had access to the security assistance plans, while a second says that no decision has been made yet, but that the missiles are “on the table” and will likely be included in an upcoming military aid package.

The range of these missiles, depending on the version, would allow Ukraine to hit targets almost four times further than with the rockets it currently possesses.

President Volodimir Zelensky’s adviser, Mikhailo Podoliak, has assured today that sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, including ATACMS, would send a clear psychological message to Russia that there is no longer a “mythical” fear of Moscow and in practice would allow “significantly accelerate the destruction of Russia’s rear resources.”

This in turn would result in “a complete disruption of transport logistics” for Russia, the blocking of its ability to rotate troops and, consequently, in “a sharp reduction in the combat readiness of the occupation forces in the first and second defensive echelon”.

Ukrainian forces have managed in recent weeks with their counteroffensive to penetrate some segments of the front in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia in the first line of Russian defense and are also trying to pierce the second.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), geolocated images from Friday indicate that Ukrainian forces have made further advances northwest of the occupied town of Verbove in western Zaporizhia, but also close to the neighboring liberated village of Robotine, from where they push south.

Despite this new impulse, the president of Ukraine noted the day before that “the war is slowing down. We recognize this fact.”

“All processes are becoming more complicated and slower: from sanctions to arms supplies,” he said during the Yalta European Strategy conference.

The president stressed that each weapon has a specific impact and “the more powerful and long-range it is, the faster the counteroffensive will be.”

“If we are not in heaven and Russia is, they will stop our counteroffensive,” emphasized Zelensky, who today met in Kiev with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, with whom he agreed to begin negotiations on bilateral security guarantees.

Ukraine has been asking the US for months to send ATACMS long-range tactical missiles, with a maximum range of 300 kilometers, but until now it has been reluctant for fear that the country could use them against territory inside Russia with the resulting retaliation. hit or miss from the Kremlin.

The United Kingdom has indeed sent Storm Shadow missiles, capable of flying more than 250 kilometers, and France has promised in July to also send long-range rockets.

While the counteroffensive is at the gates of autumn, Ukraine has already been put on alert in case Russia again intensely bombards the country’s critical infrastructure, especially energy, as it did in 2022.

For “preparation for winter”, Zelensky today held a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s team with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Energy, the General Staff and the energy companies Ukrenergo, Ukrhidroenergo and Naftogaz.

The objective has been to analyze the “implementation of the plan to protect energy and critical infrastructure from Russian attacks from the sky”, among other issues, as the Ukrainian president announced on his Telegram channel.

Recently, Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) spokesman Vadim Skibitskí stated that Russian forces are conducting reconnaissance on Ukrainian infrastructure facilities and could begin a series of massive missile and drone attacks in late September or October.

kyiv suspects, however, that Russia has not been able to replenish its missile reserves to sustain a campaign on the scale of last winter’s attacks.