Ukrainian troops are likely to start firing US-donated weapons at targets in Russia's Belgorod Region this week, after Washington relaxed restrictions on where they can be used, reports in the Western press have claimed.
US President Joe Biden previously maintained that to avoid “World War III,” American arms sent to Ukraine could not target what the US considers Russian territory. The policy change allows Kiev to attack exclusively military targets that pose a direct threat to Kharkov Region, which borders Russia’s Belgorod Region and has seen intense fighting this month. Russian troops made significant territorial gains in the area.
”This is a new reality,” an unnnamed senior US official told The New York Times, “and perhaps a new era” in the Ukraine conflict. It appears Biden will be the first American president to authorize attacks against a nuclear-armed nation on its soil, the newspaper noted on Thursday.
The NYT report provides a detailed account on how Biden’s opinion was moved by foreign pressure and members of his administration. Sources said that the US leader first indicated an inclination to make the change on May 15, when national security adviser Jake Sullivan delivered formal recommendations on the matter. The final decision was taken late last week, after Biden met national security ‘principals’ to discuss the risks of the move.
The newspaper added that it was not conveyed to lower-level officials for days. Indeed, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh defended the old policy during a Tuesday media briefing. By that time, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austing had already issued the relevant orders, but “no one had told her,” the report said.
US officials told NYT the policy change was strictly limited and motivated by peculiarities of the battlefield in Kharkov Region. However, “the president’s restrictions could be subject to further loosening,” the outlet said.
Moscow says it launched an offensive in Kharkov Region in response to constant Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes on Belgorod Region, including its provincial capital. President Vladimir Putin has said that the West omits that part in its descriptions of the situation.
”What caused that? They [the Ukrainians] did that with their own hands,” he told journalists on Tuesday, adding that a similar ramping up of the conflict may follow strikes with Western weapons deep inside Russia.
”This constant escalation may lead to serious consequences. If those consequences happen in Europe, how will the US act, considering our parity in strategic arms?” Putin asked.