This permission should help kyiv respond to Russian strikes in the Kharkiv region, the target of an offensive for several weeks.
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Joe Biden has refused to do so until now. But the tenant of the White House finally agreed to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with weapons supplied by the United States, under certain conditions. “The president has given his team the task of ensuring that Ukraine can counterattack in the Kharkiv region, so as to retaliate when Russian forces attack them or prepare to attack them”declared an American official, Thursday, May 30, on condition of anonymity.
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“Our position on prohibiting the use of ATACMS or deep strikes inside Russia has not changed”, he added. ATACMS are long-range missiles supplied by the Americans to Ukraine, capable of reaching a distance of up to 300 km.
Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv border region at the beginning of May, and is gaining ground against a struggling Ukrainian army, in particular thanks to bombings carried out almost daily from Russian soil.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, on Wednesday, suggested that the United States had changed its position in terms of Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil. “As conditions have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as Russia has changed the way it conducts its aggression, we have adapted and adjusted and I am confident that we will continue to do so.”he told the press during a visit to Moldova, a country neighboring Ukraine.
This presidential change of heart comes after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the White House, senior military officials and the State Department. After the launch of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10, Ukraine requested permission three days later to use American weapons to strike targets on Russian territory. The Kremlin, for its part, criticizes the Atlantic alliance for launching “a new cycle of escalation”.