America says it will send long-range missiles to Ukraine

MONTH BY MONTH Ukraine’s wishlist of weapons has shrunk. At the start of the war came Javelins and Stingers to take out tanks and planes. Then came artillery. HIMARS rocket-launchers followed in the summer. This January it was tanks. And in August the White House even agreed that European allies could send F-16 jets.

Only one major weapon was left: the Army Tactical Missile System, known by its acronym ATACMS (pronounced attack ’ems). On September 21st that hurdle fell when Joe Biden, America’s president, told Volodymyr Zelensky, his Ukrainian counterpart, during a meeting in the White House, that “a small number” of ATACMS were on their way, according to reports in the American press the following day. The move, first reported by NBC News, has not been formally announced.