US allows Ukraine to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles

The return of Donald Trump, whose position on the conflict remains unclear, to the White House reshuffles the cards on the Ukrainian front. While he remained evasive on the subject and considered, according to various British media, only authorizing the use of missiles with American components (for example French or British), the outgoing President of the United States, Joe Biden , goes up a notch. United States “gave the green light to the use of long-range missiles”declared this Sunday, November 17, an official close to the matter, on condition of anonymity.

This is the New York Times who revealed the information. According to the daily, these weapons could be used in the Kursk region, in Russia. A region where the Ukrainian armed forces have been installed since their incursion last August and which is at the center of a large-scale battle, while Russia has deployed nearly 50,000 soldiers there, including North Korean troops.

“Send a message to the North Koreans”

This decision would have been taken precisely in reaction to the human (around 10,000 soldiers) and material aid provided by North Korea to its Russian ally, explains the New York Times. “While officials have said they do not expect this change to fundamentally alter the course of the war, one goal of this policy change is to send a message to the North Koreans that their forces are vulnerable and they should not send more”reports the newspaper, which interviewed several Biden administration officials.

Democratic President Joe Biden thus accedes to a long-standing request from kyiv, until now authorized to use US HIMARS missiles – with a range of 80 kilometers. The objective was then to allow the Ukrainian army to target targets within the territories occupied by Russian forces, as well as certain border areas of Ukraine. Long-range missiles, Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), can reach a radius of around 300 kilometers. The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, estimates that these weapons would hit more than 200 Russian military installations, whose positions are known.

Asked about this announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remained cautious and simply noted that these weapons “will speak for themselves”. Recalling in his evening address the importance of “long range capability” of his army, he noted that“Today, many media outlets are reporting that we have received authorization to take appropriate measures”.

For John Hardy, researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “Allowing Ukraine to strike high-priority targets across Russia could put kyiv in a better position for potential negotiations, including pushing Moscow to agree to a moratorium on strikes targeting critical energy infrastructure”.

The U.S. move could push other allies to follow suit. A movement by the United Kingdom – whose government has provided several examples of Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles (nearly 249 kilometers range), is particularly scrutinized. Others do not agree to take this step, such as Germany, the second largest supplier of military aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, which refuses to provide the long-range Taurus missiles requested. by kyiv for months. France, through the voice of Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister of Foreign Affairs, took advantage of this announcement to reaffirm that the use of its missiles on Russian soil remains a « option ».

Until now, several of Ukraine's allies have refused to give such a green light due to the risk of escalation of the conflict. A fear that is more relevant than ever as Russian President Vladimir Putin does not hesitate to raise the specter of a widening of the conflict. “NATO countries are at war with Russia”he regularly threatens.

The statements of Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, in reaction to the choice of the United States, go in this direction: according to him, the use of long-range missiles on Russian territory is likely to “throw fuel on the fire”. Russia's reaction on the ground will therefore be carefully scrutinized, with the risk that a new level will be reached.