{"id":34812,"date":"2024-11-17T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T00:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34812"},"modified":"2024-11-17T21:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T03:29:31","slug":"biden-authorizes-ukraine-to-use-us-supplied-long-range-missiles-for-deeper-strikes-inside-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34812","title":{"rendered":"Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MANAUS, Brazil (AP) \u2014 President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia<\/u><\/a>, easing limitations<\/u><\/a> on the weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs<\/u><\/a>, for attacks farther inside Russia comes as President Vladimir Putin positions North Korean troops<\/u><\/a> along Ukraine\u2019s northern border to try to reclaim hundreds of miles of territory seized by Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s move also follows the presidential election victory of Donald Trump<\/u><\/a>, who has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the United States\u2019 vital military support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official and the others knowledgeable about the matter were not authorized to discuss the U.S. decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s reaction Sunday was notably restrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStrikes are not made with words,\u201d he said during his nightly video address. \u201cSuch things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles<\/u><\/a>, saying the U.S. ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy\u2019s statement came shortly after he posted a message of condolence on Telegram following a Russian attack on a nine-story building that killed at least eight people in the northern city of Sumy, 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the border with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia also launched a massive drone<\/u><\/a> and missile attack, described by officials as the largest in recent months, targeting energy infrastructure<\/u><\/a> and killing civilians. The attack came as fears are mounting about Moscow\u2019s intentions to devastate Ukraine\u2019s power generation capacity before the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd this is the answer to everyone who tried to achieve something with Putin through talks, phone calls, hugs and appeasement,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comment appeared to be a dig at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who spoke Friday with Putin<\/u><\/a> in the first such call with a sitting head of a major Western power in nearly two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some supporters have argued that the limitation and other U.S. constraints could cost Ukraine the war. The debate has become a source of disagreement among Ukraine\u2019s NATO allies<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden had remained opposed, determined to hold the line against any escalation that he felt could draw the U.S. and other NATO members into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin has warned<\/u><\/a> that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets if NATO allies allow Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News of Biden\u2019s decision followed meetings over the last two days<\/u><\/a> with the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China. The addition of North Korean troops was central to the talks, which took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit<\/u><\/a> in Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden did not mention the decision during a speech at a stop in the Amazon rainforest<\/u><\/a> in Brazil on his way to the Group of 20 summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the decision, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the U.N. position is \u201cto avoid a permanent deterioration of the war in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want peace, we want fair peace,\u201d Guterres said Sunday before the summit in Rio de Janeiro. He didn\u2019t elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer-range missiles are likely to be used in response to North Korea\u2019s decision to support Putin\u2019s invasion<\/u><\/a> of Ukraine, according to one of the people familiar with the development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall supply of ATACMS missiles is short, so U.S. officials in the past have questioned whether they could give Ukraine enough to make a difference. Some supporters of Ukraine say that even a few long-range strikes deeper inside Russia would force its military to change deployments and expend more of its resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea has provided thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region<\/u><\/a> that Ukraine seized this year. The introduction of North Korean troops to the conflict<\/u><\/a> comes as Moscow has seen a favorable shift in momentum<\/u><\/a>. Trump has signaled that he could push Ukraine to agree to give up some land seized by Russia to find an end to the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many as 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian assessments. U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions<\/u><\/a> to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, who takes office in January, spoke for months as a candidate about wanting Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/u><\/a> to be over, but he mostly ducked questions about whether he wanted U.S. ally Ukraine to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for giving Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in aid. His victory has Ukraine\u2019s international backers worrying that any rushed settlement would mostly benefit Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America is Ukraine\u2019s most valuable ally in the war, providing more than $56.2 billion in security assistance since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worried about Russia\u2019s response, however, the Biden administration repeatedly has delayed providing some specific advanced weapons sought by Ukraine, agreeing only under pressure from Kyiv, its supporters and in consultation with allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That includes initially refusing Zelenskyy\u2019s pleas for advanced tanks, Patriot air defense systems and F-16 fighter jets, among other systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House agreed in May to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weaponry for limited strikes just across the border with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANAUS, Brazil (AP) \u2014 President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter. The decision allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[1925,1169,1770,1416,1852],"class_list":["post-34812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-attacks","tag-biden","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34814,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34812\/revisions\/34814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}