US President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Sunday, marking a major policy shift long demanded by Kyiv.
The New York Times and The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, first reported the change, saying it came in response to North Korea deploying troops to help Moscow’s war effort.
The US official who spoke to AFP confirmed the reports as accurate, while spokespeople for the State Department, White House and Pentagon declined to comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently pushed for authorization from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials as ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that approval would mean that NATO was “at war” with his country — a threat he has made previously when Ukraine’s Western backers have escalated their military assistance to Kyiv.
The change in stance from the outgoing Biden administration was sparked by the arrival of North Korean troops in Russia, with Western intelligence reports suggesting around 10,000 are being deployed, the US newspapers said.
The decision comes as Biden prepares to hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to bring the conflict to an end in “one day” in a negotiation that is expected to require Ukraine to relinquish territory.
US officials had previously said they believed the ATACMS missiles would make only a limited difference to Ukraine’s campaign, and they also wanted to ensure that Washington’s own stocks of the munitions were not depleted.
– ‘Intensify the fighting’ –
The American shift is likely to have wider repercussions and lead European allies to review their stances.
France and Britain have provided Ukraine with their long-range missiles known, respectively, as Storm Shadow and SCALP, but have held back from authorizing their use inside Russia without American approval for ATACMS.
During a meeting with French leader Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain discussed how to put Ukraine in “the strongest possible position going into the winter,” his office said afterward.
Speaking in Argentina on Sunday, Macron said Putin “does not want peace” and that “it’s clear that President Putin intends to intensify the fighting.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to supply Ukraine with his country’s Taurus missiles with a range of over 500 kilometers (310 miles) over fears that they could hit Russian territory.
In the final two months of the Biden administration, US officials have promised to spend the remaining $6 billion of approved Ukraine funding before Trump takes office on January 20.
During campaigning, Trump and his allies consistently criticized Western assistance for Kyiv.
Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said recently that “pouring more billions in (to the war in Ukraine) is the definition of insanity at this point.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has even mocked Zelensky online, sharing a clip on Instagram last weekend that said he was just weeks away “from losing your allowance.”
Russia pounded Ukraine on Sunday with a massive attack that killed 11 civilians across several regions and damaged the country’s already fragile energy grid.
Nationwide emergency power restrictions would be implemented Monday ahead of a much-feared winter, the state grid operator announced.
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