The Ukrainian military tweeted that the attack destroyed several Russian helicopters, an ammunition depot, and an air defense launcher, but did not specify whether they used ATACMS to do it.

Asked repeatedly over the last several weeks about the status of the systems, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US has “nothing to announce.” That was a deliberate choice of words, officials said.

Discussions about sending the systems picked up substantially last month, CNN previously reported.

US officials had previously been reluctant to send the long-range surface-to-surface guided missiles amid fears about escalating the conflict as they could potentially be fired into Russia itself.

That concern largely waned over the last several months, however, since Ukraine demonstrated that it was not using other US-provided weapons to attack territory inside Russia, officials said.

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