WASHINGTON/KYIV –
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to ease some restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons in Russia is a small but important step deeper in the two-year war that experts say could help blunt Russia’s cross-border Kharkov offensive.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Biden administration had argued that it was too risky to allow Ukraine to attack targets on Russian territory with US-supplied weapons. It feared that a major Ukrainian attack could lead to direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
It was a rule that dovetailed neatly with other U.S. bans on supplying more expensive weapons to Kiev that have also since crumbled, from advanced U.S. fighter jets to long-range ATACM missiles.
