Biden lets Ukraine use U.S. weapons to hit Russia
New US policy aims to stop Russian offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Daily TribuneNew US policy aims to stop Russian offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to hit targets in Russia with American missiles to stop Moscow’s ground offensive in the Kharkiv region, United States officials said Thursday.
Previously, Washington disallowed the use of US weapons to strike Russian soil to avoid being dragged into the war triggered by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
A US official who requested anonimity said the new policy is intended to allow Ukraine to “hit back against Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them.”
Another US official who also spoke on condition anonimity confirmed the change of policy which some allies also supported amid pleas by Kyiv.
The White House has made it clear to Kyiv that the permission for cross-border attacks was limited to targets just over the border that were being used to launch offensives.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday welcomed the US decision.
“Ukraine has the right for self-defense, and that includes also the right to strike legitimate military targets inside Russia,” Stoltenberg told journalists at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, Czech Republic.
The latest Russian strikes in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed three people in a residential area and wounded at least 23 others, including two children, regional police said early Friday
Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, is located just across the border from Russia’s Belgorod and regularly comes under attack from Russian missiles.
Russian forces are advancing on all fronts in Ukraine and have seized 880 square kilometers of territory this year alone, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday.
