Moscow unveils monument to Kalashnikov, designer of AK-47

The new statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov cradling his signature AK-47 assault rifle unveiled Tuesday in Moscow commemorates one of Russia's most renowned and reviled inventions. By some estimates, the AK-47 and its versions account for about one-fifth of the world's firearms, the rugged and reliable weapon of choice for many armies, terror groups and drug gangs.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2005 file photo, girls learn to disassemble and reassemble Kalashnikov assault rifles during a lesson at the cadets' boarding school No. 9 for girls in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr, File)

A look at Kalashnikov and his gun:

THE MAKINGS OF A DESIGNER

Kalashnikov was born into a Siberian peasant family in 1919. Mechanically minded, he at first aspired to design farm equipment. But World War II called him into the army.

He was wounded in the 1941 battle of Bryansk, and spent several months recovering in a hospital. While on the mend, he heard other soldiers complaining about how the Red Army's rifles were inferior to those wielded by the Nazis, and he began to work on designs of his own.

The army put him to work as a designer and although his first efforts were unsuccessful, he broke through in 1947. The gun's name commemorates the designer and the year — Avtomat Kalashnikova (19)47.

A new monument to Russian firearm designer Mikhail Kalashnikov is unveiled during an official ceremony in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. Kalashnikov, who died in 2013 at age 94 in the city of Izhevsk, has received accolades as the creator of the AK-47 assault rifle. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

A GUN ADOPTED AROUND THE WORLD

The AK-47 soon became widely popular for its adaptability to rugged conditions, including jungles, deserts and cold. It is simple to operate and easy to maintain -- with little training, users reportedly can field-strip one in half a minute.

The gun was quickly adopted by Soviet Bloc armies and the Soviet Union distributed them to the armies of ideological allies and revolutionary groups throughout Africa and Asia. Moscow also freely licensed other countries to produce local versions.

FILE - In this July 6, 2007 file photo, Mikhail Kalashnikov holds a prototype of his famous AK-47 assault rifle, during a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the worldwide assault rifle's creation in the Russia's Armed Forces Central Museum in Moscow, Russia.  (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

A RUSSIAN CULTURE ICON

The AK-47's distinctive profile with a banana clip makes it one of the world's most recognizable firearms. It appears on the flag of Mozambique, the flag of Hezbollah and its barrel is shown on Zimbabwe's coat of arms.

It also enters the precincts of kitsch — souvenir hunters can find glass mock-ups of the rifle filled with vodka.

In the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin: "The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people." Or as Russia's Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky put it: the Kalashnikov rifle has become "Russia's cultural brand."

A new monument to Russian firearm designer Mikhail Kalashnikov is unveiled during an official ceremony in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. Kalashnikov, who died in 2013 at age 94 in the city of Izhevsk, has received accolades as the creator of the AK-47 assault rifle. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

HOW DID KALASHNIKOV FEEL?

Kalashnikov had said repeatedly that he was untroubled by inventing a gun that shed so much blood, insisting that he designed it to defend the Motherland.

"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," he said in 2007.

But a few months before his death in 2013 at age 94, he had penned a brooding letter to Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill.

"My mental anguish is unbearable. I have the same insoluble question: if my submachine gun took people's lives, does it mean that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, 93 years old, the son of a peasant, and Orthodox Christian by my faith, am responsible for the deaths of people, even if they were enemies?" he wrote.

The patriarch responded that the blame lies not with him, but with those who used his weapon with evil intentions.

A new monument to Russian firearm designer Mikhail Kalashnikov is unveiled during an official ceremony in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. Kalashnikov, who died in 2013 at age 94 in the city of Izhevsk, has received accolades as the creator of the AK-47 assault rifle. By some estimates, the AK-47 and its versions account for about one-fifth of the world’s firearms. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.

Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) — that it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the U.S. last October.

"We’ve already sent some, we will send more now that we have additional authority and money,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The additional ATACMS were included in a new military aid package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

Biden approved delivery of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, in February, and then in March the U.S. included a “significant” number of them in a $300 million aid package announced, officials said.

U.S. officials would not provide the exact number of missiles given last month or in the latest aid package, which totals about $1 billion.

Ukraine has been forced to ration its weapons and is facing increasing Russian attacks. Ukraine had been begging for the long-range system because the missiles provide a critical ability to strike Russian targets that are farther away, allowing Ukrainian forces to stay safely out of range.

Information about the delivery was kept so quiet that lawmakers and others in recent days have been demanding that the U.S. send the weapons — not knowing they were already in Ukraine.

For months, the U.S. resisted sending Ukraine the long-range missiles out of concern that Kyiv could use them to hit deep into Russian territory, enraging Moscow and escalating the conflict. That was a key reason the administration sent the mid-range version, with a range of about 160 kilometers (roughly 100 miles), in October instead.

Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that the White House and military planners looked carefully at the risks of providing long-range fires to Ukraine and determined that the time was right to provide them now.

He told The Associated Press in an interview that long-range weapons will help Ukraine take out Russian logistics nodes and troop concentrations that are not on the front lines. Grady declined to identify what specific weapons were being provided but said they will be “very disruptive if used properly, and I’m confident they will be.”

Like many of the other sophisticated weapons systems provided to Ukraine, the administration weighed whether their use would risk further escalating the conflict. The administration is continuing to make clear that the weapons cannot be used to hit targets inside Russia. At the State Department, spokesman Vedant Patel said Wednesday that Biden directed his national security team to send the ATACMS specifying that they be used inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.

“I think the time is right, and the boss (Biden) made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now,” Grady said Wednesday. “I think it was a very well considered decision, and we really wrung it out — but again, any time you introduce a new system, any change — into a battlefield, you have to think through the escalatory nature of it.”

Ukrainian officials haven’t publicly acknowledged the receipt or use of long-range ATACMS. But in thanking Congress for passing the new aid bill Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted on the social platform X that “Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, artillery and air defense are extremely important tools for the quick restoration of a just peace.”

One U.S. official said the Biden administration warned Russia last year that if Moscow acquired and used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to Kyiv. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.

Russia got some of those weapons from North Korea and has used them on the battlefield in Ukraine, said the official, prompting the Biden administration to greenlight the new long-range missiles.

The U.S. had refused to confirm that the long-range missiles were given to Ukraine until they were actually used on the battlefield and Kyiv leaders approved the public release. One official said the weapons were used early last week to strike the airfield in Dzhankoi, a city in Crimea, a peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. They were used again overnight east of the occupied city of Berdyansk.

Videos on social media last week showed the explosions at the military airfield, but officials at the time would not confirm it was the ATACMS.

"These strikes proved -– once again -– that Ukraine can notch battlefield victories when given the right tools,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who has long pressed the administration to send the long-range weapons.

Ukraine’s first use of the weapon came as political gridlock in Congress had delayed approval of a $95 billion foreign aid package for months, including funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies. Facing acute shortages of artillery and air defense systems, Ukraine has been rationing its munitions as U.S. funding was delayed.

With the war now in its third year, Russia used the delay in U.S. weapons deliveries and its own edge in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs — dropped from planes from a safe distance — to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.

The mid-range missiles provided last year, and some of the long-range ones sent more recently, carry cluster munitions that open in the air when fired, releasing hundreds of bomblets rather than a single warhead. Others sent recently have a single warhead.

One critical factor in the February decision to send the weapons was the U.S. Army’s ability to begin replacing the older ATACMS. The Army is now buying the Precision Strike Missile, so is more comfortable taking ATACMS off the shelves to provide to Ukraine, the official said.

At the White House, Sullivan said the administration “has worked relentlessly to address those concerns" and stocks are now coming off the production line and the ATACMS can be sent without hurting U.S. military readiness.

Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

In this image provided by the U.S. Army U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lerma, crew chief for Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, adjusts the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) for loading on to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) at Williamson Airfield in Queensland, Australia, on July 26, 2023. U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, called ATACMS, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. (Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Dickson/U.S. Army via AP)

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Sgt. Ian Ketterling, gunner for Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, prepares the crane for loading the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) on to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in Queensland, Australia, July 26, 2023. U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, called ATACMS, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. (Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Dickson/U.S. Army via AP)

President Joe Biden speaks before signing a $95 billion Ukraine aid package that also includes support for Israel, Taiwan, and other allies, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - A Ukrainian national flag waves over the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Feb. 16, 2022. U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov, File)

FILE - In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers, from the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade out of Fort Bragg N.C., conduct live fire testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Dec. 14, 2021, of early versions of the Army Tactical Missile System. U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. The strikes come about a month after the U.S. secretly provided the weapons so that Ukraine could strike targets up to 190 miles away. (John Hamilton/U.S. Army via AP, file)