Key Points
- US President Joe Biden will allow Ukraine to use US-provided long-range weapons to strike Russia.
- The decision follows Russia's deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces.
- Russia has warned that it would see a move to loosen the limits on Ukraine's use of US weapons as a major escalation.
United States President Joe Biden's administration has allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision say.
It is a significant reversal of US policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.
The move by the US two months before follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to allow Ukraine's military to use US weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.
The change comes largely in response to to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in the US and Ukraine, a US official and a source familiar with the decision said.
Zelenskyy said the missiles would "speak for themselves".
"Today, many in the media are saying that we have received permission to take appropriate actions," he said in his Sunday evening address.
"But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced."
The White House and US state department declined to comment.
Russia warns of major escalation
Russia has warned it would see a move to loosen the limits on Ukraine's use of US weapons as a major escalation.
The US decision to let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with long-range US missiles could lead to World War Three and will receive a swift response, Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house's international affairs committee, said, according to the TASS news agency.
Andrei Klishas, a senior member of Russia's upper chamber of parliament, said it was "such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning".
Ukraine's first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 306km, according to the sources.
Some US officials are sceptical that allowing long-range strikes will change the war's course, but the decision could help Ukraine, especially as and possibly put Ukraine in a better negotiating position when and if ceasefire talks happen.
It is not clear if Trump will reverse Biden's decision when he takes office. Trump has long criticised the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine and , without explaining how.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But one of Trump's closest foreign policy advisers, Richard Grenell, criticised the decision.
"Escalating the wars before he leaves office," Grenell said in a social media post responding to the news.
Russia launches largest attack on Ukraine in months
Meanwhile, Ukraine's national grid operator said all regions would experience temporary restrictions on power following Russia's massive air strike on the energy system.
Russia unleashed its largest air attack on Ukraine in almost three months on Sunday, killing seven people and further hobbling an already damaged energy system.
In a statement, the state-owned electricity transmission system operator, Ukrenergo, said workers were repairing damages as quickly as possible.
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President Putin warns the West against allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles
SBS News
13/09/202406:01
After Sunday's strike, Ukrainian officials had confirmed damage to critical infrastructure or power cuts in regions from Volyn, Rivne, and Lviv in the west to Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east.
The extent of the damage was hard to assess because authorities reveal little about the outcome of strikes and the state of the energy grid, which Russia had targeted in an air campaign earlier this year.
Russia's defence ministry said it had launched a massive strike on energy facilities that supply Ukraine's military-industrial complex.
