World War III Looms As Outgoing President Biden Authorizes Ukraine to use of U.S.-supplied missiles in Russia

 

 

World War III Looms As Outgoing President Biden Authorizes Ukraine to use of U.S.-supplied missiles in Russia

 

 

President Biden has for the first time authorized the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, according to one U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter.

 

The decision is a major U.S. policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and has expressed skepticism over continued support by the United States.

 

The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea’s decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the people. The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles

 

Outgoing president makes big policy shift after North Korean soldiers are deployed in the war

 

The US-made Army Tactical Missile System, which Ukraine is now expected to use on targets inside Russia © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

 

 

US President Joe Biden has authorised Ukraine to launch limited strikes into Russia using US-made long-range missiles, in a big policy shift before the end of his White House term in January, two people familiar with the decision said.

 

The move by Biden comes in response to the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, and after a barrage of new strikes by Moscow on Ukrainian cities at the weekend.

 

Tuesday will mark the 1,000th day of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

 

The US-made long-range missiles are likely to be first used by Ukraine to target Russian and North Korean forces in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized territory during the summer, according to people briefed on the matter.

 

Biden has allowed Ukraine to use HIMARS — the American High Mobility Artillery Rocket System — to strike targets inside Russia.

 

But he has long resisted authorising Kyiv to launch strikes within Russia using US-made long-range missiles known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, on the grounds that it could escalate tensions with Moscow. ATACMS missiles have a range of up to 300 kilometres, or 190 miles.

 

He is now dropping those objections more than two months before he leaves office to make way for Donald Trump.

 

The Republican is sceptical of additional military aid to Ukraine and has vowed to bring a swift end to the war — without saying how exactly he would do it.

 

The White House declined to comment. The Pentagon declined to respond to a request for comment.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday noted media reports “talking about the fact that we have received permission” to use American ATACMS missiles inside Russia, although he did not confirm Biden’s decision.

 

Zelenskyy has pleaded for months for the US and other partner countries to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-made, long-range weapons inside Russia.

 

He has argued that cross-border strikes with the American ATACMS, British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles were necessary to hit Moscow’s forces before they could launch new attacks on Ukrainian targets, including critical infrastructure.

 

“Two countries are against us, against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on Friday, referring to Russia and North Korea. “We would very much like to be granted the ability to use long-range weapons against military targets on Russia’s territory.”

 

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defence minister, said the use of ATACMS missiles would allow Kyiv to set its sights on “high value targets” and “potentially disrupt Russian operations”.

 

“There are targets which can only be addressed by high payload missiles such as ATACMS or equivalent aerial missiles. This is, of course, a decision giving Ukraine troops a chance, though as with many previous decisions coming after a significant and extremely painful delay.”

 

Biden’s decision to allow the Ukrainians to use ATACMS missiles followed the deployment early last month of 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia.

 

This was the first foray into the war by a foreign military and a major expansion of North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

Pyongyang had previously provided Moscow with hundreds of ballistic missiles and millions of artillery shells. In exchange, Moscow has provided Pyongyang with military technologies to help with its missile programmes and money, a senior Ukrainian official.