Supplies of long-range weapons to Kiev won’t be game changer in Ukraine - TASS

Western supplies of long-range weapons systems to Kiev are unlikely to reverse the situation in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told Russia’s Channel One.

"There has been lots of speculations, lots of talk about long-range hardware that Kiev wants so badly. But no western systems can change the situation on the ground," he told the Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) show on Tuesday night.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced in early June that London would send Kiev M270 rocket systems with munitions capable of striking targets at a distance of up to 80 km. The decision was synchronized with the delivery of US M142 HIMARS systems and ammunition to Kiev. The US administration earlier said that the first batch would include four rocket systems while the strike range of a light wheeled HIMARS that would be handed over to Kiev would not exceed 70 km. Kiev assured the US it would not use those systems to attack targets on the Russian territory.