Kyiv has been granted permission to strike military targets deep inside Russia according to the Guardian newspaper’s own sources.
The Guardian’s sources have said the US and UK have granted permission to use long-range missiles inside the Russian Federation, however the publication states this has not officially been announced, RB-Ukraine reports.
The Guardian reports as cited by RBC-Ukraine, “Deploying the missiles, western officials add, should be part of a wider plan designed to try to bring about an end to the full-scale war.”
On Friday the US President Joe Biden held a meeting with the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
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Biden said on Friday afternoon that Ukraine using Storm Shadow cruise missiles to destroy targets inside Russia does not amount to NATO being at war with Moscow, despite Vladimir Putin’s threats of “all-out war.”
Biden said, “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin,” the Guardian reports.
After the foreign policy summit Starmer said there was no particular decision on the use of Storm Shadow missiles.
He said, “Well, we’ve had a long and productive discussion on a number of problems, including Ukraine, as you’d expect, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, talking strategically about tactical decisions.”
A question was then asked how soon it will be before Biden allows Ukraine to use the missiles inside Russia, the US President said, “We’re going to discuss that now.”
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said that he and the British Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been listening to officials in Kyiv “very intently” on discussing lifting restrictions to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russia.
Blinken said the US has “continuously adjusted and adapted based on battlefield conditions” in Ukraine to change the use of various weaponry as the dynamics of the war changes.
On Friday the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said that he believes Blinken will actually deliver the news to officials in Kyiv if and when the restrictions are lifted.
“What I’ve seen and what I’ve been briefed on, it looks like that’s the message they’re going to give them, that they can use them cross-border,” McCaul said.
“It sounded promising to me.”
Vladimir Putin has drawn a new “red line” and if the West crosses it, which they most likely will then this will be considered a “direct participation” of NATO in the war.
The Kremlin leader said, “It would substantially change the very essence, the nature of the conflict.
“This will mean that NATO countries, the USA and European states, are fighting with Russia.”
Putin told Russian state television, “So this is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not.
“It is a question of deciding whether or not NATO countries are directly involved in a military conflict.
“This will be their direct participation, and this, of course, will significantly change the very essence – the very nature – of the conflict.”
Russia’s Defence Minister said at a security conference in China on Friday there is a real potential for conflict between nuclear powers.
