Ukraine says it struck Russian airfields, taking out enemy helicopters, and it looks like it did it with ATACMS it secretly got from the US

• Ukraine says it carried out a series of strikes on Russian airbases, damaging multiple helicopters.
• Multiple reports and a source familiar with the matter said Kyiv used ATACMS in the attack.

Ukraine says its forces launched attacks that damaged Russian airfields behind the lines and destroyed multiple helicopters on Tuesday, and according to multiple reports and a source familiar with the matter, the strikes involved MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, secretly obtained from the US.

Kyiv's defense ministry said the attacks on the airfields in Berdyansk and Luhansk — both of which are in Russian-occupied territory — resulted in the loss of nine helicopters, an air-defense launcher, vehicles, and ammunition depots, and caused severe damage to the airstrips. Ukraine attributed the "successful" operation, known as "Dragonfly," to the country's special operations forces, which also published details of the incidents.

In the aftermath of the strikes, open-source intelligence (OSINT) accounts, Russian military bloggers, and analysts began suggesting on social media that Ukraine used ATACMS to carry out the attack, which would be a first for Ukraine.

Indications that ATACMS were used then transcended the OSINT accounts. "ATACMS is already with us," Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, wrote in a social media post. "The airfield in Berdyansk with enemy equipment was hit by them. Thanks to our partners!"

A person familiar with the matter told Insider that Ukraine used ATACMS missiles, confirming multiple reports that Kyiv's forces secretly acquired ATACMS from the US.

Insider's source said Ukraine used the M39 variant in Tuesday's strikes. The M39 is a deadly cluster missile. It has a range of around 100 miles and is packed with 950 anti-personnel and anti-materiel, or APAM, M74 bomblets. These submunition are released mid-flight and disperse over a large area.

Ukrainian officials, former US military officers, war experts, and US lawmakers in Congress have long pressed Washington to send ATACMS to Kyiv. The Biden administration reportedly agreed to do so last month, but there hasn't been any apparent movement on the matter until now.

The Pentagon responded to Insider's request for comment but did not confirm the reporting on ATACMS.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, was much more forthcoming.

"Thank you to everyone who is fighting and working for Ukraine! Thank you to everyone who is helping us! And today I am especially grateful to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. And they are being implemented very accurately – ATACMS have proven themselves," he said in a statement.

The Ukrainian defense ministry also signaled the apparent arrival of ATACMS.

Prior to the statement from Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, wrote on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, that "a new chapter of this war has (un)officially begun," adding that "there are no more safe places for Russian troops within the... internationally recognized borders of #Ukraine."

ATACMS can be fired from Ukraine's existing arsenal of US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS. The 100-mile range of the M39 ATACMS variant is double the range of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) that Kyiv has previously launched from its HIMARS.

The cluster missiles will help augment Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities. Kyiv's forces in recent months have relied heavily on Western-provided Storm Shadow, or SCALP-EG, air-launched cruise missiles to strike high-profile Russian targets around the Black Sea and the occupied Crimean peninsula. Ukraine also has the domestically developed land-attack variant of the Neptune anti-ship missile.

Experts say ATACMS will allow the Ukrainian military to hammer, among other targets, Moscow's artillery and threaten its military supply and communication lines deep behind the front lines.

Indications that Ukraine has ATACMS come at a significant moment for Kyiv's military, which is braving amid its own counteroffensive operations what US officials say is a "renewed offensive" in eastern Ukraine, though Russian forces appear to have made limited — if any — progress.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week that the Russian military "appears to be using human wave tactics" and is sending poorly trained and equipment soldiers right into battle, a brutal tactic that Moscow has used before.

"We have seen the Ukrainians work very hard to repel these offensive maneuvers, and they appear to have done just that," Kirby said.