Russia relocated 90% of its aircraft so they won’t be in range of Ukraine’s ATACMS, report says

A joint flight of Russian and Chinese jets in a Russian Defense Ministry handout from July 2024.

Russia seems to be afraid of losing its planes to one of Ukraine’s strongest weapons, and moving them out of harm’s way.

Per a report in The Wall Street Journal, Russia has moved 90% of its aircraft beyond the range of the ATACMS missiles given to it by the US.

It attributed the statistic to an unnamed US official, who in turn cited a US intelligence assessment.

ATACMS can reach about 185 miles.

The figure was given in the context of a dispute between Ukraine and the US over what it is allowed to target with its ATACMS.

A condition of receiving the missiles is that Ukraine can only use them to strike limited targets on Russian soil — excluding planes at airfields.

The US official cited the 90% figure to justify not softening its stance. Their argument was that there was no point — Russia already moved the planes.

An earlier report from Politico gave a more conservative account of Russia’s relocation, saying that it only moved 90% of the planes capable of launching glide bombs.

That assessment was cited to an unnamed senior Biden administration official making a similar argument.

It hasn’t stopped Ukraine pleading publicly for all restrictions to be dropped.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week, after a large salvo of Russian air strikes that “Defenders of life should have no restrictions on weapons, as long as Russia uses all kinds of its own weapons.”

The Institute for the Study of War estimated earlier this month that at least 250 militarily significant targets in Russia were within range of Ukraine’s American long-range ATACMS missiles but that the current restrictions only allow Ukraine to strike 20 of those targets.

Experts have previously told B-17 that removing restrictions would force Russians to have to spread their resources.

The Telegraph and the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that UK government officials have privately been asking the US for the go-ahead to let Ukraine use its Storm Shadow missiles on Russian soil.

Storm Shadows have a shorter range than ATACMS, around 155 miles compared to 185.

Ukraine has instead been using reasonably inexpensive, locally built drones to launch longer-range attacks.

Last week, Zelenskyy shared a video on X showing Ukraine’s homegrown long-range weapon, called the Palianytsia. The rocket-drone hybrid was designed specifically to hit targets deep inside Russia.