President Joe Biden has authorised the first use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia, US officials said.
The weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defence of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia, the officials said.
Biden’s decision is a major change in US policy. The choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before President-elect Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine.
Allowing the Ukrainians to use the long-range missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, came in response to Russia’s surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight, officials said. Biden began to ease curbs on the use of US-supplied weapons on Russian soil after Russia launched a cross-border assault in May in the direction of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
To help the Ukrainians defend Kharkiv, Biden allowed them to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, which have a range of about 50 miles (80km), against Russian forces directly across the border. But Biden did not allow the Ukrainians to use longer-range ATACMS, which have a range of about 190 miles (145km), in defence of Kharkiv.
While the officials said they do not expect the shift to fundamentally alter the course of the war, one of the goals of the policy change, they said, is to send a message to the North Koreans that their forces are vulnerable and that they should not send more of them. The officials said that while the Ukrainians were likely to use the missiles first against Russian and North Korean troops that threaten Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Biden could authorise them to use the weapons elsewhere.
Some US officials said they feared that Ukraine’s use of the missiles across the border could prompt President Putin to retaliate with force against the US and its coalition partners. But other US officials said they thought those fears were overblown.
The Russian military is set to launch a major assault by an estimated 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, on dug-in Ukrainian positions in Kursk with the goal of retaking all of the Russian territory that the Ukrainians seized in Aug. The Ukrainians could use the ATACMS missiles to strike Russian and North Korean troop concentrations, key pieces of military equipment, logistics nodes, ammunition depots and supply lines deep inside Russia. Doing so could help the Ukrainians blunt the effectiveness of Russian-North Korean assault.
Earlier, some Pentagon officials opposed giving ATACMS to the Ukrainians because they said the US army had limited supplies. Some White House officials feared that Putin would widen the war if they gave the missiles to the Ukrainians. Supporters of a more aggressive posture toward Moscow say Biden and his advisers have been too easily intimidated by Putin’s hostile rhetoric.
