Joe Biden’s government has given Ukraine permission to attack inside Russia using weapons provided by the United States, but only near the Kharkov area, a US official confirmed to EFE.

“The president recently ordered his team to guarantee that Ukraine can use weapons supplied by the United States for counterattack purposes in the Kharkov region, so that Ukraine can counterattack the Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them,” he said.

However, the source added, the policy regarding the prohibition of the use of ATACMS ballistic missiles or long-range attacks within Russia “has not changed.”

With this decision, the Biden Administration has given in to the request of Ukraine, which has been asking Washington for weeks to make this change of policy, especially since the Russian offensive against Kharkov began this month.

Therefore, Ukraine can now use weapons provided by the United States, such as rockets and rocket launchers, to shoot down Russian missiles launched into this area against troops that are concentrated just across the Russian border. Or against Russian bombers that throw bombs into Ukrainian territory.

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However, Ukraine cannot use those weapons to attack civilian infrastructure or launch long-range missiles, such as the Army Tactical Missile System, to achieve military targets in central Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken became the first U.S. official to publicly insinuate that Biden could change course and allow such attacks. In turn, he told journalists that US policy towards Ukraine would evolve as necessary.

The spokesman of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, did not subsequently rule out a possible change.
Those messages came after the main allies of the United States, such as the United Kingdom and France, said that Ukraine should have the right to attack within Russia using Western weapons.

Russia accused NATO of opening a new phase of tension in its stormy relations by encouraging Ukrainian attacks against targets in Russian territory with Western weaponry, a position in which there is no unanimity in the Allied bloc.

“In recent days and weeks, NATO members, especially the United States and other European countries, have entered a new phase of escalating tensions. And they do it consciously,” Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, said at his daily press conference.

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In recent days, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the green light to be given to Kiev, an appeal that was supported this week by France.

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenski, considers it “unfair” that Kiev cannot use Western weapons to respond to Russia, but the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, already told him this week that the F-16 fighter planes he will deliver to Kiev will not be able to be used in the neighboring country.