Ukraine confirms limited permission to strike Russia with US weapons

Ukraine has confirmed that the United States authorised the limited use of its weapons to strike Russian territory.

According to The Guardian, Serhii Nykyforov, spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed media reports that appeared the day before that the administration of US President Joe Biden had secretly approved Ukraine's strikes on Russian territory using US-supplied weapons, but only near Kharkiv Oblast.

 "It will significantly boost our ability to counter Russian attempts to mass across the border," Nykyforov said.  

In a comment to European Pravda, Nykyforov said: "We have started to receive positive signals through diplomatic channels about the limited use of weapons from the United States in the region bordering Kharkiv."

For his part, in an interview with the Guardian, Zelenskyy made it clear that Ukraine needed the ability to use powerful long-range weapons that could hit targets deep inside Russian territory – a red line that the White House had refused to lift.

Without this green light, Zelenskyy said, other allies, such as the United Kingdom, might also not allow Ukraine to use its long-range weapons.

"Believe us, we have to retaliate. They don’t understand anything but force. We are not the first and not the last target," Zelenskyy stressed.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg asked the allies to review the constraints on Ukraine's ban on using Western weaponry against the Russian Federation in the midst of border fighting in Kharkiv Oblast.

Some European states have openly stated that they support this position.