According to a U.S. senator and a Western diplomat familiar with the situation, Ukraine has just launched strikes inside Russia using American weaponry.
President Joe Biden recently issued directives that authorized the use of American munitions against targets within Russia with the specific goal of protecting Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.
The official spoke under anonymity because they were not permitted to publicly remark on the delicate subject. The Senate Armed Services Committee member from South Dakota, Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican, acknowledged the strikes using American weapons but did not disclose the details of his briefing.
Under Biden’s command, Russian forces that are assaulting or preparing to attack may be targeted using weapons provided by the United States. According to U.S. officials, it does not alter U.S. policy, which forbids Ukraine from using long-range missiles, ATACMS, or other weapons that the United States provides to launch offensive strikes within Russia.
Calls by Ukrainian leaders for the United States to permit Kyiv’s military to protect themselves against strikes coming from Russian territory have intensified. Situated within 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv has been subjected to heightened Russian aggression.
Russian forces have advanced in the northeastern Kharkiv region by taking advantage of a protracted lag in the resupply of American military supplies. Furthermore, the insufficient military output in Western Europe has caused a delay in vital supplies reaching Ukraine’s battlefield.
John Kirby, the national security spokesperson for the White House, said reporters on Tuesday that he was unable to verify if Ukraine had utilized American weaponry against targets in Russia.
“We simply aren’t in a position to know exactly what the Ukrainians are firing at what on a daily basis,” Kirby remarked. “It’s definitely on a tactical plane.”
Shortly after the White House reversed course, Germany declared that it was granting Ukraine permission to deploy the long-range missiles it is giving Kyiv to strike some targets within Russian territory. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, told Germany on Wednesday that it would be a “dangerous step” for Ukraine to deploy its weapons within Russia. He also hinted that Moscow would then supply other countries with long-range missiles so they could attack targets in the West.
A June 3 study from the Institute for the Study of War states that on June 1 or 2, Ukrainian troops, most likely using the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, hit a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in the Belgorod region. The institution said that the air defense system was situated more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the city of Kharkiv, which is inside the range of HIMARS, and around 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) from the existing front line in the Kharkiv region.
The strikes were confirmed at the same time that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, visited Qatar. Since the conflict, Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has acted as a mediator in prisoner exchanges and other agreements between Russia and Ukraine.
Zelenskyy had a meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the governing emir of Qatar. The men were debating how “to stop the fighting, protect civilians, and keep all channels of communication open to resolve the crisis through dialogue and diplomatic means,” according to a summary from the official Qatar News Agency.
Rounds stated that he supported Biden’s choice to permit the use of American weapons in some situations for attacks against Russia.
“It’s okay with me if Ukraine uses the ATACMS and other weapons, along with all our artillery, to eliminate them before they inflict more damage on Ukraine,” he declared.
