WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden’s administration will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a significant change to Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

The move by the United States two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine’s military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.

The change follows Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv.

The first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.

    • ouch@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Bad news mate. WW3 already started a while ago. The world is essentially in a proxy war against Russia.

      • DictatrshipOfTheseus@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        If you include the global south (which obviously you should), most of the world sides with Russia. I’d agree with you that unless things really take a turn towards deescalation, which is laughably unlikely, history will look back at this time as WWIII having already begun. But it’s a lot more complicated than just a proxy war against Russia. It’s a proxy war the Western Imperialists via NATO but under the hegemonic control of the US in particular, is waging against the rising challengers of that hegemony. And primary among those is China, which is why we have the constant and unrelenting sinophobia and anti-China propaganda. It’s just that Russia has just been the first and boldest to actually use military force against the encroachment of western imperialist ambitions, but Iran is being forced into taking action now too. Also Hezbollah and Anserallah of course, but I mean among those that are fully recognized as state actors.

        But no, if this does shape up to truly be WWIII, then the line is not between Russia and the world. The lines are between Western Imperialists and Multipolarists.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    If this is true, this is an act of absolute insanity on the part of Biden admin. This would be an act of war from Russian perspective. Russians repeatedly stated that these weapons can only be operated by NATO personnel, and the use of these weapons would mean direct attack by NATO on Russia. Furthermore, since tomahawks can carry a nuclear pay load, the launches of these missiles will be viewed as a nuclear attack. Russians aren’t gonna wait and see whether a nuclear capable missile actually had a nuke payload or not before they respond.

  • davel@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    three sources familiar with the matter

    Anonymous sources. On the one hand, this is weak tea, but on the other, I wouldn’t put it past the Biden administration at all.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      Reuters and NYT are reporting it. Those outlets get their talking points straight from the white house. There is little reason to doubt this.

    • FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      Things were going way too quietly since the election. This is probably the first step towards starting the major conflict

  • vfreire85@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    they didn’t worked within ukraine, what makes them believe they’re gonna work within russia.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      One interesting explanation from Mohammed Mirandi was the establishment wants to escalate as much as possible to prevent Russia from accepting de escalation when Trump comes to power without major concessions from Ukraine.