President Joe Biden has secretly authorized Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, two U.S. officials said Thursday. The decision is a turnaround that Kiev’s allies hope will help turn the tide of the war.
The decision, which applies only to the area around the northeastern city of Kharkiv, aims to ensure that Ukrainian forces can attack the Russian army while it is attacking or preparing to attack, said the officials, who spoke on condition anonymity. Long-range attacks inside Russia would not be allowed, they added.
Politico first reported the decision.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to leave room for a change on the issue.
“We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside Ukraine. Ukraine, as I have said before, must make its own decisions on how best to defend itself effectively,” he said during a trip to Europe, where a NATO meeting will also take place on Thursday. A “hallmark” of U.S. support for Ukraine, he said, “has been accommodation.”
“As circumstances have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed,” he added, “we have also adapted and adapted, and I am confident we will continue to do so.”
Russia launched a new offensive in the Kharkiv region weeks ago. Meanwhile, Kiev has warned it could also gather troops for a new incursion into neighboring Sumy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued increasingly dire warnings that his country remains handicapped, arguing that restrictions on the use of Western-supplied weapons have given Moscow an unfair advantage.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested this week that Ukraine would be allowed to hit military targets in Russia from which missiles were fired into Ukrainian territory.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had previously called for Ukraine to use weapons supplied by the West to hit targets in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has regularly threatened to take revenge for Western involvement in the nuclear conflict. That has led to fears that allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons to hit targets in Russia risks a dangerous escalation that could turn the conflict into World War III.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
