President Joe Biden has reportedly authorised the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia in a major US policy shift, according to one US official and three people familiar with the matter.
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 sources.
The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorised to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles, saying the US ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
Some supporters have argued that this and other US constraints could cost Ukraine the war.
The debate has become a source of disagreement among Ukraine’s NATO allies.
Biden had remained opposed, determined to hold the line against any escalation that he felt could draw the US and other NATO members into direct conflict with Russia.
North Korea steps in
But North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back territory in the Kursk region that Ukraine seized this year.
The introduction of North Korean troops into the conflict comes as Moscow has seen a favourable shift in momentum.
As many as 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian assessments.
American and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
President-elect Trump has signalled that he could push Ukraine to agree to surrender some land seized by Russia to bring about an end to the conflict.
Trump, who takes office in January, spoke for months as a candidate about wanting Russia’s war in Ukraine to be over but mostly ducked questions about whether he wanted US ally Ukraine to win.
He also repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for giving Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in aid.
His election victory has Ukraine’s international backers worrying that any rushed settlement would mostly benefit Putin.
