Biden to allow Ukraine’s use of long-range US missiles to hit targets inside Russia as energy infrastructure targeted in massive Russian missile, drone attacks

Some leading international media outlets report that President Joe Biden has authorized the Ukrainian military to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.

The news organizations including Reuters, the Associated Press and the New York Times quoted US officials on Sunday as saying the authorization concerns the use of weapons known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS. The missiles are reportedly capable of precision strikes.

These sources including two US officials, told Reuters on Sunday that Ukraine plans to carry out long-range attacks using the weapons in the coming days.

The New York Times quotes officials as saying the authorization “came in response to Russia’s surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight.”

It also cites officials as saying the “weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia.” Ukrainian forces have been engaging in a cross-border incursion in the region.

The New York Times says “Biden’s decision is a major change in U.S. policy.” It adds that the “choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine.”

The White House has not commented on the reports, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the missiles would “speak for themselves”.

“Today, many in the media are saying that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to Ukrainians. “But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.”

The MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS is a supersonic tactical ballistic missile designed and manufactured by the US defense company Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV), and later Lockheed Martin through acquisitions.

It uses solid propellant and is 13 feet (4.0 m) long and 24 inches (610 mm) in diameter, and the longest-range variants can fly up to 190 miles (300 km).[9] The missiles can be fired from the tracked M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the wheeled M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

An ATACMS launch container (pod) has one rocket but a lid patterned with six circles like a standard MLRS rocket lid to prevent an enemy from discerning what type of missile is loaded.[1]

Ukraine had repeatedly asked the US to allow it to hit inside Russia with long-range missiles provided by the Biden administration. But Washington had refused to give the green light out of concern that such strikes would sharply escalate tension.

Meanwhile, Russia has launched large-scale missile and drone strikes across Ukraine. The country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks as targeting his country’s energy infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said on social media that all regions of Ukraine were hit by a massive combined attack overnight and Sunday morning.

He said Russian forces launched a total of about 90 drones and 120 missiles, including Kinzhal and Zircon types that Russia’s military says are hypersonic.

Zelenskyy also said a drone attack killed two people and injured six, including two children, in Mykolaiv in the south.

He said the enemy’s target was energy infrastructure across Ukraine, and that some facilities were damaged.

Authorities in the capital Kyiv said on social media that falling debris damaged a residential building and left one person injured.

They described the combined missile-drone attack on Ukraine as the largest in about three months.

Power and water supplies were reportedly disrupted in parts of the southern region of Odesa. A major energy firm said a thermal power plant was seriously damaged.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on social media that the attack is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “true response to all those who called and visited him recently.”

The US decision marks a significant shift in policy, and boosts a Ukrainian government that has struggled to stop Russian attacks on cities and its electrical grid.

Biden had long opposed moves to use US weapons against Russia, however, fearing that it would drag the US and its NATO allies into direct conflict with Russia.

But the president appears to have relented, after momentum in the war shifted towards Russia. North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers to support Russia as it attempts to regain territory in Kursk lost to Ukraine.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, a Russian lawmaker, said that allowing Ukraine to strike inside Russia with US-supplied missiles would lead to a third world war, according to state news agency TASS. The lawmaker added that the Russian response would be immediate.

Moscow has previously warned that it would see any move by Washington to loosen restrictions on the use of US-supplied weapons as a major escalation.

Trump and members of his incoming administration have indicated that they are more skeptical of heavily supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, and it is unclear whether Trump will reverse the decision to allow Ukraine to use the US-supplied weapons inside Russia.

The Republican leader has promised to end the war quickly, but has not given details as to how he would go about doing so.