Washington's policy shift comes as Moscow carried out another massive missile strike against Ukraine's energy grid on Sunday. It also follows the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia's Kursk region to fight against the Ukrainian army, a development that has caused concern in Washington and Kyiv.
The President's Administration Joe Biden lifted restrictions that until now prevented Ukraine from using weapons supplied by the United States to strike deep into Russian territorysaid three sources familiar with the decision. Kyiv plans to carry out its first long-range attacks in the coming daysthe sources added, without revealing details due to operational security concerns. The White House declined to comment.
The decision taken by Joe Biden a little more than two months before his successor, Donald Trump, takes office on January 20, responds to a long-standing request from Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky to be able to use American weapons to strike military targets far from its border, notably airfields used by Russian aircraft to bomb Ukraine.
Washington's policy shift comes as Moscow conducted a new massive missile strike against the Ukrainian energy network. It also follows the deployment of North Korean troops in the Kursk region of Russia to fight against the Ukrainian army, a development which has caused concern in Washington and Kyiv.
With ATACMS
The first deep strikes will likely be carried out using missiles ATACMSwhose scope can reach 306 kmaccording to sources.
Although some U.S. officials have expressed skepticism that authorizing long-range strikes could change the overall trajectory of the war, the move could help Ukraine at a time when Russian forces are gaining ground and could put Kyiv in a better negotiating position if ceasefire talks were to take place.
It is not certain that Donald Trump will reverse Joe Biden's decision when he takes office, even though the president-elect is highly critical of the scale of U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine and has pledged to end the war” in 24 hours”, without explaining how.
War in Ukraine: he “will stop helping” kyiv and give “Vladimir Putin all the ground he has acquired”… Trump is preparing the “capitulation” of Ukraine, warns François Hollande https://t .co/hCu0wA6vmZ via @lindependant
— The Independent (@lindependent)
The measure also benefits from the support of certain Republican elected officials in Congress, who have long called on President Biden to lift the restrictions imposed on Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly repeated that it would consider any American decision in this direction as a “major escalation”.
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