WSJ: Pentagon Secretly Modified HIMARS System Sent to Ukraine to Thwart Attacks on Russian Targets

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a US daily newspaper, revealed that the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) has secretly modified advanced missile systems it sent to Ukraine to make the weapons unable to hit targets inside Russia to avoid escalating the war.

According to the American newspaper, the United States of America (USA) has supplied Kyiv since last June with 20 of the highly mobile missile systems "HIMARS", but the weapons are uniquely modified so that they cannot launch long-range missiles.

Along with HIMARS, the USA has supplied the Multiple Guided Missile System (GMLRS) with a range of up to 50 miles (80.4 kilometers), which has been used to strike Russian ammunition depots and command centers inside Ukraine.

When US President Joe Biden announced that the Defense Department would ship HIMARS systems and ammunition to Ukraine at the end of May, he said they would only be used for defense, and that the administration "would not send missile systems to Ukraine that would strike Russia."