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The US on Friday appears to have expanded its agreement with Ukraine to strike over the border inside Russian territory.
But Russian forces are engaging in cross-border attacks into Ukraine.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the agreement with Ukraine to fire into Russia extends wherever Russian forces are attempting to invade.
“It extends to anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try to take additional Ukrainian territory,” Sullivan said, adding that it’s “not about geography. It’s about common sense.”
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Charlie Dietz said in a statement that the US “has agreed to allow Ukraine to fire US-provided weapons into Russia across where Russian forces are coming to attempt to take Ukrainian territory.”
“If Russia is attacking or about to attack from its territory into Ukraine, it only makes sense to allow Ukraine to hit back against the forces that are hitting it from across the border,” Dietz said.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder insisted on Thursday that there had been no change in policy, which was always meant to allow Ukraine to conduct cross-border counterstrikes where necessary.
Recall that the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin suggested during a press conference at NATO meeting that the policy was limited to the Kharkiv region.
“Ukraine requested permission to conduct counter-fire in the Kharkiv area using US weapons, and President Biden granted them permission to do that…but the ability to conduct counter-fire in this close fight in the Kharkiv region is – is what this is all about.”
The change marks a significant shift in the limited nature of the agreement between the US and Ukraine.
President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission in May to conduct limited strikes inside Russia with US-provided weapons, but restricted it primarily to the border in the Kharkiv region after Russian forces launched a renewed offensive there.
Last week, a senior US Defense Department official left the door open for a change of policy, telling reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels there have been “a number of areas” where the US has given the green light on policies it had previously been reluctant to approve.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also called for allowing Ukraine more flexibility to fire into Russia, saying last week that Ukraine “has the right to strike military targets on Russian territory.”
