The United States have not announced the transfer to Ukraine of HIMARS ammunition with a range of 300 km
On the evening of July 8, Joe Biden signed an executive order for a new $400 million military aid package. It includes among other things multiple rocket launchers HIMARS. Many big Ukrainian web resources have begun to write that ammunition for HIMARS with a range of up to 300 km is coming to Ukraine, but there is a nuance.
What we know
It is hard to find the initial source, but some of the first to write about it were Telegram-channels "Trukha" and "Ukraine Online News" with an audience of 2 million and 1 million respectively, as well as another 1,000 and 1 small channel.
Even Anton Gerashchenko, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, made an appearance. He also wrote in Telegram about the transfer of new extended-range rockets to Ukraine. The post has been deleted before we finished this text, but we have screenshot.
Many Ukrainian websites also reprinted the news. For example, "Focus".
All refer to the Financial Times article , which was published in the evening of July 8 with the headline "US to send $400mn of military equipment to Ukraine". However there is no mention in the text of either increased range or specifically 300 km. If the site requires a subscription, you can copy the headline and go through Google. If you are too lazy to do it, here is a screenshot of the whole news Financial Times:
And a post by a Ukrainian journalist Voice of America on Twitter:
The official Pentagon website mentions only "additional munitions to HIMARS". There is no mention of range.
We have the same situation with the official statements of president Volodymyr Zelensky and The Ministry of Defense:
We do not rule out that the United States will indeed send new missiles to Ukraine that can hit targets at a distance of up to 300 km. For two weeks everyone thought that the US had handed over 4 MLRS HIMARS, and yesterday it turned out that we already have 8 and will soon have 12. However, none of the Ukrainian or US officials have confirmed this information yet.
For those who want to know more:
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- Canada will send LAV II ACSV armored vehicles with 7,62mm
- U.S. senators call for sending long-range missiles to Ukraine for HIMARS
- Ukrainian "Drone Army" sends first DJI Mavic and DJI Phantom drones to the front
- Ukrainian military created kamikaze drones themselves, without waiting for MQ-1C Gray Eagle deliveries