At a news conference in Prague after an informal meeting of NATO ministers on Friday, Blinken said Biden’s approval came after Kyiv asked Washington for permission weeks later.
“And he went to the president, and as you heard, he approved the use of our weapons for that purpose. Going forward, we will continue to do what we have done, which is, if necessary, adapt and adjust,” Blinken added. .
He also noted that Washington’s resolution marked a shift in policy by Biden, who in the past had refused to allow Ukraine to use U. S. weapons for actions inside Russia.
Blinken added that the United States is responding to what it has noticed in the Kharkiv region, which have been new Russian attacks in recent weeks.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is 30 kilometers from the Russian border.
This is the second time this year that Biden has quietly relaxed his policy on arms deliveries to Ukraine. Earlier this year, it agreed to send long-range missiles, known as ATACMS, to Kyiv.
This week’s U. S. resolution angered Kremlin officials. This came as France and European countries also indicated that Ukraine would be allowed to use its weapons against military targets in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday of “serious consequences,” pointing to his country’s nuclear capability, if Ukraine’s Western allies loosen their policy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Kyiv’s allies allow him to use his longer-range weapons to strike targets on Russian soil, amid a surge in attacks this month, adding in Kharkiv.
A Russian strike at (21:00 GMT) killed at least 3 other people and wounded 16 others after a Russian missile hit a construction site in the city. Last weekend, another 19 people were killed after a Russian attack on a hardware store.
“Biden’s administration has come a long way from his hypersensitive reaction and his false impression of the threat of escalation,” Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European affairs at the White House National Security Council, told Reuters.
He welcomed Biden’s policy, which he said “unties Ukraine’s hands. “
“Of course, it’s the right decision,” Vindman said.
David Des Roches, a U. S. defense policy specialist at the Center for Security Studies for the Near East and South Asia, said the Biden administration has a tendency to first reject Ukraine’s request and then relent due to realities on the ground.
“There’s a dynamic here,” he told Al Jazeera. The Ukrainians, with their own weapons, are attacking Russia’s nuclear infrastructure. They have just broken Krasnodar’s early warning radar with a drone produced in the country; is very far away In Russia.
“Earlier this year, they attacked [Engels’] strategic bombing base. . . Paradoxically, allowing Ukraine to attack Russia as part of this limited tactical operation – the value is the cessation of Ukrainian moves opposed to Russia’s strategic capabilities. . »
The United States is Ukraine’s biggest weapon in its war to push back the Russian military, which introduced a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Biden’s resolution came shortly after NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg told the alliance’s foreign ministers that “the time has come” to ease restrictions on the use of weapons in Kyiv and “allow Ukrainians to protect themselves. “