Seventy ATACMS missiles, 12 M270 rocket launchers and tens of thousands of cluster munitions: that is the package Russia’s Foreign Ministry says could wreck its relations with both Washington and Ankara.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova delivered the warning on August 15, 2026. Moscow has asked the United States and Türkiye to explain what is going on, she said, and the deal would do “serious damage to our bilateral relations with Washington and Ankara,” as the Kyiv Independent quoted her. Pravda reported that she called the circumstances and terms of the shipments “highly contentious.”
What Türkiye is sending
The equipment is American-made but sits in Turkish stocks, so Washington has to sign off before Ankara can pass it to Kyiv. The State Department sent paperwork to Congress on 3 August and indicated it was ready to approve. Lawmakers get 15 days to object before anything moves.
Nordic Monitor put the package at $283 million. Besides the 70 M39 ATACMS missiles and 12 M270 launchers, it lists 2,524 M26 rockets and 47,000 M509A1 203mm artillery shells. The ATACMS carry a range of roughly 165 kilometers. Nordic Monitor called it the largest transfer Türkiye has offered Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The cluster munitions add a political snag. Together they hold more than 10 million explosive submunitions. Türkiye, Russia, Ukraine and the United States have all stayed out of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, yet Ankara had earlier said it does not use, produce, import or transfer such weapons.
Zakharova’s argument
Her complaint was about trust. Talking up peace while shipping weapons, she said, does inevitable harm to “mutual trust.” The Kyiv Independent noted she pointed to Turkish assurances that it would not send lethal aid. Moscow has contacted both governments, and she left a door open: “It is not too late to assess the situation soberly.”
Türkiye is in an awkward spot. It is a possible broker between Russia and Ukraine and also a supplier to Kyiv. The Kyiv Independent added that the Trump administration has scaled back US defense funding for Ukraine, which leaves Kyiv hunting for weapons elsewhere.
Ties that cut both ways
Nordic Monitor traced a slow drift. Erdogan has grown closer to Donald Trump in the president’s second term, while his contact with Vladimir Putin has thinned. Turkey’s Communications Directorate says their last phone call took place on April 3. Turkish imports from Russian Black Sea ports fell to about 900,000 tons in July 2026, down from 1.2 million tons in June.
Russia still holds a large stake in the country, though. Rosatom is building the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Türkiye’s first nuclear facility, with four Russian-designed reactors totaling 4.8 gigawatt. Startup operations began in June 2026.
Türkiye’s own explanation for the transfer is practical: clearing out older equipment while money goes to modernization.
Sources
- Russia warns Türkiye and US that arms supplies to Ukraine will damage relations
- Russia threatens 'serious damage' to relations with US, Turkey over weapons shipment to Ukraine
- Turkey's Western-backed Ukraine arms deal tests ties with Russia
