President Joe Biden secretly gave Ukraine permission to use American weapons to strike inside Russia, two American officials said Thursday, a U-turn that Kyiv’s allies hope helps turn the tide of the war.
Though hugely symbolic and welcomed by Ukraine, the decision only applies to some weapons supplied by the United States, and only in one area: the northeastern Kharkiv region where Russia launched a sweeping cross-border assault three weeks ago, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine will be allowed to use certain types of weapons to strike Russian forces preparing to attack just over the border, a U.S. official told NBC News. But Ukraine will still be prohibited from using longer range weapons — such as the much vaunted, long-range ATACMS — to strike deeper into Russia.
Politico first reported the decision.
The question of whether to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia has become a point of division with its allies and a source of anguish for Kyiv itself.
The U.S. had been a lone hold-out, resisting urges by European officials to give Ukraine more license to attack Russian soil.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has also been among those calling for Ukraine to be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons to hit targets inside Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron joined the push earlier this week and Germany confirmed Friday it would match the U.S. in easing its stance.
Like all its allies, Washington is trying to balance supporting Ukraine while avoiding the perception that it is indirectly attacking Russia — a common allegation by the Kremlin. President Vladimir Putin commands the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and has explicitly warned Western powers that their intervention could trigger World War III.
The debate has also been a source of intense complaint from Kyiv, which has suffered recent battlefield setbacks against a resurgent Russian miilitary.
Biden's U-turn has already been criticized by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as too little too late — and costing Ukrainian lives.
The president's spokesman confirmed and welcomed the shift in American policy. “It will significantly boost our ability to counter Russian attempts to mass across the border,” Serhii Nykyforov told NBC News Friday.
But Zelenskyy himself was less welcoming, saying in an interview with The Guardian newspaper that Washington's delay in approving the decision had cost lives. He called on the U.S. to allow the use of long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
“I think it is absolutely illogical to have weapons and see the murderers, terrorists, who are killing us from the Russian side," he told The Guardian. "I think sometimes they are just laughing at this situation,” he said of the Russian forces. “It’s like going hunting for them. Hunting for people. They understand that we can see them, but we cannot reach them.”
It's that dynamic — Ukraine being able to see Russian forces across the border ready to attack, but not preemptively strike them — which shifted the thinking of Biden officials behind the scenes, a U.S. official told NBC News.
Three days after Russia's Kharkiv assault on May 10, National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. held a video call with Ukraine officials, who requested they be allowed to attack forces across the border in Russia, the U.S. official said.
Two days later, on May 15, Sullivan took the proposal to the president, making the case that it was common sense for Ukraine to be able to fend off Russian attacks by missiles, troops and bombers before they crossed the border, the official said.
After several more meetings, including with Blinken who had recently traveled to Kyiv, the move was signed off and went into effect as of Thursday, the official added.
