Biden Grants Ukraine Permission For Long-Range Strikes on Russia With US-Donated Weapons: Reports

Last updated on November 19th, 2024 at 07:53 am

President Joe Biden has granted Ukraine permission to use U.S.-donated long-range weapons to strike inside Russian territory, according to reports by the Associated Press, Reuters, and the New York Times.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller neither confirmed nor denied the reported policy decision when asked about the reports during a Nov. 18 press briefing. Instead, Miller tied the issue to reports of North Korean troops fighting for Moscow in Russia’s embattled Kursk region.

“That is a major escalation by Russia, bringing in an Asian military to a conflict inside Europe. And as we said, as [Secretary of State Antony Blinken] said, our response to that would be firm, and the supporters of Ukraine’s response to that needed to be firm,” Miller said.

Ukraine, the United States, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have all claimed in recent weeks that Pyongyang has deployed around 10,000 North Korean troops to fight for Russia. Neither Russia or North Korea have confirmed any such deployment.

While the alleged North Korean troop deployment to Russia may serve the Biden administration’s justification for Ukraine to conduct long-range offensive strikes on Russia, the reported policy move would fulfill a request Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeated for months.

Throughout the spring and summer, Zelenskyy had repeatedly requested permission to use weapons, supplied by his various foreign backers, to strike inside Russia. The Ukrainian leader even reiterated the request as part of a recent so-called “victory plan” to improve Ukraine’s standing in the war.

Biden has generally prohibited Zelenskyy’s forces from using U.S.-donated weapons on Russian territory, but in May his administration granted Ukrainian forces permission to use donated weapons for immediate cross-border strikes on Russian forces launching attacks on Ukraine.

For months, Biden had avoided granting explicit permission for Ukraine to strike more extensively across Russia, noting concerns about retaliation and the potential for the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to turn into a wider conflict.

Despite the reported policy shift, there’s been no clear evidence of a Ukrainian long-range strike in Russia using U.S.-donated weapons. Addressing the reported policy shift, Zelenskyy said, “Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for [long-range strikes]. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves.”

Moscow remains watchful for the potential Ukrainian long-range strikes to come.

“If such a decision has indeed been formulated and communicated to the Kiev regime, then, of course, this is a qualitatively new round of escalation of tensions and a qualitatively new situation in terms of the involvement of the United States in this conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state-backed TASS News Agency on Nov. 18.

The Kremlin has suggested Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russia using U.S.-donated weapons would signify direct U.S. involvement in the conflict.

The Kremlin announced on Monday it had updated its nuclear forces posture.

“An aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state will be regarded as their joint attack,” the revised Russia nuclear doctrine states.

The reported shift in U.S. policy toward the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war comes with just weeks remaining in Biden’s presidential term. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled he would push to quickly negotiate an end to the ongoing war, which has gone on for more than two and a half years.

The incoming president has yet to comment on the reported policy shift but his son, Donald Trump Jr., criticized the move in a post on his X social media profile.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives. Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!” the younger Trump wrote.

The Biden administration has already signaled it’s working to flow as much U.S. aid to Ukraine as possible before the end of Biden’s term in office.

The United States has, thus far, appropriated about $175 billion in Ukraine-related aid. Congress approved about $61 billion of that aid earlier this year, and Biden has been gradually drawing funds from that appropriation ever since.

In addition to the approximately $175 billion in Ukraine-related aid paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, the Biden administration has also prepared plans alongside the European Union and the Group of Seven (G7) nations, to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to underwrite additional loans for Ukraine.

“We are working to get all of it out of the door, all of the drawdown authority out of the door to Ukraine, before the end of his term. And when it comes to the sovereign assets, we have also made clear that we’re trying to operationalize that money as well before the end of the term,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a Nov. 7 press briefing.