Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US missiles

18/11/2024 6:12

        President Joe Biden's
        administration has allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to
        strike deep into Russia, two U.S. officials and a source
        familiar with the decision said on Sunday, in a significant
        reversal of Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
        
        Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the
        coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to
        operational security concerns.
        
        The move comes two months before President-elect Donald
        Trump takes office on Jan. 20 and follows months of pleas by
        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine's
        military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far
        from its border.
        
        The change comes largely in response to Russia's deployment
        of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a
        development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv, a U.S.
        official and a source familiar with the decision said.
        
        The White House and the State Department declined to
        comment. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and president's office
        did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
        
        Russia has warned that it would see a move to loosen the
        limits on Ukraine's use of U.S. weapons as a major escalation.
        
        Ukraine's first deep strikes are likely to be carried out
        using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306
        km), according to the sources.
        
        While some U.S. officials have expressed skepticism that
        allowing long-range strikes will change the war's overall
        trajectory, the decision could help Ukraine at a moment when
        Russian forces are making gains and possibly put Kyiv in a
        better negotiating position when and if ceasefire talks happen.
        
        It is not clear if Trump will reverse Biden's decision when
        he takes office. Trump has long criticized the scale of U.S.
        financial and military aid to Ukraine and has vowed to end the
        war quickly, without explaining how.
        
        A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a
        request for comment. But one of Trump's closest foreign policy
        advisers, Richard Grenell, criticized the decision.
        
        "Escalating the wars before he leaves office," Grenell said,
        in an X post responding to the news.
        
        Some congressional Republicans had urged Biden to loosen the
        rules on how Ukraine can use U.S.-provided weapons.
        
        Since Trump's Nov. 5 victory, senior Biden administration
        officials have repeatedly said they would use the remaining time
        to ensure Ukraine can fight effectively next year or negotiate
        peace with Russia from a "position of strength".
        
        
        
        'WAY TOO LATE'
        
        The U.S. believes more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers
        have been sent to eastern Russia and that most of them have
        moved to the Kursk region and have begun to engage in combat
        operations.
        
        Russia is advancing at its fastest rate since 2022 despite
        taking heavy losses, and Ukraine said it had clashed with some
        of those North Korean troops deployed to Kursk.
        
        Stretched by personnel shortages, Ukrainian forces have lost
        some of the ground they captured in an August incursion into
        Kursk that Zelenskiy said could serve as a bargaining chip.
        
        "Removing targeting restrictions will allow the Ukrainians
        to stop fighting with one hand tied behind their back," Alex
        Plitsas, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council,
        said.
        
        "However, like everything else, I believe history will say
        the decision came way too late. Just like the ATACMS, HIMARS,
        Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Abrams Tanks and F-16. They were all
        needed much sooner," he added.
        
        Despite Zelenskiy's pleas, the White House had been
        reluctant to allow U.S.-supplied weapons to be used to strike
        targets deep inside Russia for fear this could escalate the
        conflict.
        
        Kyiv's other allies have been supplying weapons but with
        restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out
        of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws NATO
        countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict.
        
        Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, also called
        the move a response to North Korea's involvement.
        
        "President Biden responded to the entry of North Korean
        troops into the war and the massive Russian missile strike in a
        language that V. Putin understands - by removing restrictions on
        Ukraine's use of Western missiles," Sikorski said on X.