The move is intended to put Zelensky in a good position to negotiate a ceasefire when Trump takes the White House, experts say.
▲ Area of the Ukrainian region of Odessa destroyed yesterday in a Russian offensive.Photo Afp
Ap, Afp, Europa Press and Reuters
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, November 18, 2024, p. 21
kyiv. Yesterday, the United States authorized Ukraine, for the first time, to use long-range missiles supplied by the Pentagon to attack Russia, an initiative that was immediately followed by France and Great Britain.
The decision of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, was released by a US official and three people familiar with the matter, cited by the New York Timeswhile the authorization of the French and British to use their missiles SCALP/Storm Shadow against Russia was published by the newspaper The Figaro. At the time of going to press, the White House neither confirmed nor denied this version; Neither did London or Paris.
The decision comes after Russia yesterday launched a huge attack with 90 drones and 120 missiles against Ukraine, described by kyiv as the largest in recent months, targeting energy infrastructure and killing several civilians.
Washington would have authorized attacks limited inside Russian territory in response to the presence of up to 12,000 North Korean troops on the front to reinforce the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, the newspapers confirmed Washington Post and New York Times.
This change seeks to be a deterrent to North Korea, so that it does not send more troops to Russia and perceives that the presence in the area is a expensive error, according to one of the sources of the post. Therefore, the attacks would initially focus on the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces already control a small portion of Russian territory and precisely where North Korean soldiers have been deployed since October.
kyiv will be able to use the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), guided supersonic missiles that can carry a cluster or conventional bomb warhead that has a maximum range of about 305 kilometers, against targets on Russian territory. Until now, something like this was vetoed for fear of escalation, and it is relevant because this decision has been made less than two months after the replacement in the White House, after the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections on November 5, who has promised to end the war in Ukraine.
Other sources have suggested that, with this gesture, Biden intends to strengthen Ukraine’s position with a view to a possible negotiation with Moscow, once Trump takes office in January.
Some U.S. officials do not believe allowing long-range strikes will change the overall trajectory of the war, but the decision could help Ukraine now, when Russian forces are gaining ground, and put kyiv in a better negotiating position if developments occur. ceasefire talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky yesterday cautiously welcomed the news and added: Today many media outlets report that we have received permission to take appropriate measures. But attacks are not made with words. Things like that are not advertisedhe continued. The missiles will speak for themselves.
This decision would represent a significant change in the conduct of Ukrainian operations. With these missiles with a maximum range of several hundred kilometers, Ukraine could attack logistical sites of the Russian forces and airfields from where its bombers take off, the French newspaper reported. The Figaro.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, condemned the unacceptable Russian missile and drone attacks against civilians in Ukraine and recalled that are prohibited by international humanitarian law.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, commented yesterday that Ukraine could count with the support of the European bloc after the latest Russian missile attacks.
Support from Europe
In turn, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, maintained that yesterday’s Russian aerial bombardment against Ukraine showed that Putin He neither wants peace nor is he willing to negotiateand that the priority for his country was equip, support and help kyiv resist.
Meanwhile, in Germany, at least a thousand Putin opponents led by Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s widow, denounced the war in Ukraine and the Russian president in Berlin in a march that seeks to reactivate a movement weakened by repression.
Tulsi Gabbard, appointed by the virtual president-elect Donald Trump to lead the United States intelligence services, supported in 2022 one of Russia’s main justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of biolaboratories financed by the United States that work in some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world.
Moscow claimed that kyiv was using the laboratories to create deadly biological weapons similar to the Covid-19 virus that could be used against Russia, and that Putin had no choice but to invade neighboring Ukraine to protect his country.
As reported by the AP agency, these laboratories are public and are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop biological weapons.
Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, later clarified that she was not accusing the United States or Ukraine of anything nefarious and was only expressing concern about the protection of the aforementioned laboratories.