WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed Ukraine to use US -made weapons to strike deep into Russia, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision said yesterday, 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 US 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 US 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 US 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”.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 18 2024

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