November 18, 2024 8:41 PM.
US President Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia, multiple US media outlets reported. However, the US has not formally announced the decision, but a German government spokesperson said today that Berlin had been informed.
European leaders, including Poland, have expressed their support for the call from Washington to drop restrictions on Ukraine using long-range missiles supplied by Western allies inside Russia.
With two months left in office, the president for the first time authorized the Ukrainian military to use the system known as ATACMS to help defend its forces in the Kursk region of Russia.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has described the decision as astonishingly dangerous. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that despite the decision from the White House, Germany will not be sending its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that US President Joe Biden was further inflaming tensions with his decision to allow Kyiv to use American long-range weapons in Russia.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia will be considered as NATO’s direct involvement at war with Moscow.
The move comes two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20 next year. US media reported that the change comes largely in response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops with its forces in the Kursk region. Meanwhile, 10 people were killed and 44 injured in a Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa today.
