American President Joe Biden, who has so far refused to do so, has agreed to allow Ukraine to strike targets on Russian soil, in the Kharkiv oblast, under certain conditions, said Thursday, May 30. American official, according to Agence France-Presse. “The president has tasked his team to ensure that Ukraine can use American weapons to counterattack in the Kharkiv region, so as to retaliate when Russian forces attack it or prepare to attack it. ‘attack,” the source said.
This official, who requested anonymity, however added that the United States continued to oppose Ukrainian strikes deep into Russian territory. “Our position on prohibiting the use of ATACMS or deep strikes inside Russia has not changed,” he said. ATACMS are long-range missiles supplied by the Americans to Ukraine, which can reach targets up to 300 kilometers away.
The Kharkiv oblast, in eastern Ukraine, is the almost daily target of bombings mainly coming from Russian territory. Russia launched an offensive in the region at the beginning of May and is gaining ground against the struggling Ukrainian army.
NATO favors strikes in Russia
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, suggested on Wednesday 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 said. he told the press during a visit to Moldova, a country bordering Ukraine.
NATO is pushing Western capitals to lift restrictions that “tie the hands behind the backs of the Ukrainians”, in the words of its Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, a position that several countries, including France, have joined. On Thursday, May 30, in Prague, shortly before the start of a ministerial meeting of the Atlantic Alliance, he demanded that Ukraine’s allied countries let it strike Russia with the weapons they provide. The Kremlin, for its part, criticized the Atlantic Alliance for launching “a new cycle of escalation”.