File photo. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden at the White House in September 2023. Photo: AFP / Getty Images North America / Drew Angerer
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
President Joe Biden has authorised Ukraine to use powerful long-range American weapons inside Russia, according to a senior US official familiar with the decision, as North Korean troops deploy in support of Moscow's effort.
The decision comes as Russia has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, the southern Russian region where Kyiv launched its surprise counteroffensive in the summer, to prepare to take back territory.
Thousands of North Korean troops have deployed to Kursk as part of the offensive, sparking concern from Biden and his advisers that their entry could lead to a dangerous new phase in the war.
The decision to allow use of the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, inside Russia had been under consideration for months. American officials had been divided on the wisdom of allowing the new capability. Some had concerns about escalating the war, while others worried about dwindling stockpiles of the weapons.
The US refused to even provide ATACMS to Ukraine for the first two years of the war, in part because of readiness concerns as the powerful missiles require time and complex components to produce. But Biden secretly approved the transfer of the long-range ATACMS missiles in February for use inside Ukrainian territory, and the US delivered the missiles in April.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky had been pressing Washington to allow use of the weapons inside Russia, too, arguing he needed the capability to gain momentum in his war effort.
When Biden and Zelensky last met at the White House in September, the Ukrainian leader came with a detailed list of targets inside Russia that he wanted to hit with US-provided long-range missiles, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The list was a key part of Zelensky's "victory plan" for winning the war. Biden, who nearly three years into the war had prohibited the Ukrainians from deploying the missile systems for deep strikes into Russia, was not entirely dismissive of the request, the sources said. But he was ultimately noncommittal, and the leaders agreed to keep discussing the issue.
The Ukrainians have already conducted several successful strikes deep inside Russia using their own long-range drones that have damaged Russia's defense industrial base, US officials note - drones that have a far longer range than the ATACMs.
A resident walks among debris of a destroyed building following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Ukraine's Odesa region on 17 November, 2024. Photo: AFP
US officials have also said Russia has moved some of its most valuable targets outside the ATACMS' 180-mile range, anyway. The Ukrainians have argued, though, that there are plenty of Russian assets within range, including military bases and production and logistics facilities.
The US and its allies had been working to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs through the end of 2025 as a way a way to "Trump-proof" US security aid. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Ukraine-Russia war would not have started if he had been commander in chief.
Zelensky on Friday said the war "will end faster with the policy of this team that will now lead the White House," referring to the incoming Trump administration. Trump has said he could settle the war in one day, without saying how he would do so.
Biden's authorization comes after the US State Department said Tuesday that 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Russia and "have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces" in the Kursk region, where Ukraine's three-month military incursion has stalled.
A Ukrainian commander previously told CNN that North Korean troops were a "significant resource" for Moscow's war on Ukraine, as even those being deployed defensively would free up Russian troops for assault operations elsewhere and would eventually be used in direct combat.
- CNN