Minister Biden’s decision Allowing Ukraine to fire US-made and supplied missiles deep into Russia – a major policy change announced over the weekend after months of intense lobbying by Kiev – drew an angry response from Moscow. Although there was no direct reaction from the man who started a nearly three-year war against his neighboring country, Russian lawmakers aligned with President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the move was unacceptable and warned it could lead to a third world war. .

Mr. Biden authorized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to use American-made missiles with a range of about 200 miles, known as ATACMS, to strike deeper into Russian territory than the Ukrainians have ever had.

So far, Ukraine’s attacks beyond the immediate border region inside Russia have been limited to non-US and much less effective weapons such as explosive drones. ATACMS are much more destructive and harder to hit as they move towards their programmed targets.

Zelenskyy’s government has been pressuring Washington to allow the use of missiles in long-range attacks for some time, but the Biden administration has been reluctant due to concerns that the war would potentially escalate.

But over the weekend, the calculus apparently changed. The decision comes nearly 1,000 days into the all-out war in Ukraine and nearly two months before Mr. Biden is due to hand over the White House keys to the president-elect. Trump far less supportive of Ukraine’s ambitions To hold on to all Russian-occupied lands.

It also came as Russia We hit Ukraine with a devastating missile attackIt highlights Ukraine’s desperate desire for the ability to target Russian weapons systems deeper within the country before they are launched, as Zelenskyy has emphasized for more than a year.

While many of the Russian rockets launched on Sunday targeted energy infrastructure, a ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition hit a residential area of ​​the northern city of Sumy, killing 11 people, including two children, and wounding more than 80. New attacks hit apartment buildings in the southern city of Odesa on Monday, killing at least eight people, including a child, regional authorities said.

Sumy residents were targeted while they slept, and Ukrainian officials described Sunday’s salvo of missiles and drones as one of the biggest Russian attacks since the start of the war.

With the change in policy of the outgoing administration in Washington, Ukrainian forces will be able to retaliate more harshly and have greater access to Russia than ever before. Ukrainian forces have carried out drone strikes on Russian territory for months, including targeting Moscow, but their impact has been limited.

Zelenskyy welcomed the change in US policy, saying “attacks are not carried out with words… Missiles will speak for themselves.”

But Ukraine’s wartime leader also appeared to accept the change of direction in Washington that Trump’s second swearing-in would bring; The emphasis was expected to be on a negotiated ceasefire rather than defending Ukraine’s sovereign territory against unilateral annexation by Russia.

Zelenskyy said in an interview with a Ukrainian news source, “It is certain that the war will end faster with the policies of the team that will run the White House. This is their approach, the promise they made to their citizens.” he said. “Everything must be done to ensure that this war ends next year, through diplomatic means.”

Meanwhile, in Moscow, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky criticized Mr Biden, accusing him of deciding to “end his presidency and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe'”.

Meanwhile, Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Biden’s decision represented “a very big step towards the beginning of the third world war.”

Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official newspaper of the Russian state, warned: “The crazy people who drag NATO into direct conflict with our country may soon suffer great pain.”

Putin had previously personally warned against this possibility: Warning issued in September He said that if the United States allowed Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at his country, “it would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are parties to the war in Ukraine.”

But Putin has since raised the stakes of the war dramatically, overseeing the deployment of at least 11,000 North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian forces. They participated in the fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region; Ukrainian troops occupied a significant part of it in a surprise attack earlier this year.

It may be Putin’s move that “cements this as a truly global conflict, with North Korean troops fighting in Europe,” according to John Sullivan, who served as the US ambassador to Russia under both Mr Trump and Mr Biden. It will be the last straw for the current US president.

“It’s been one escalation after another by Putin, and I think it’s time for the United States to give the Ukrainians the ability to defend themselves more completely,” Sullivan told CBS Mornings on Monday. he said.

The parameters of the authorization granted to Ukraine for the use of ATACMS have not been confirmed, but reports suggest that these parameters include and may be limited to Ukraine’s use of the missiles to attack Russian defensive positions at Kursk.

James Nixey, who heads the Russia and Eurasia program at the London-based Chatham House think tank, said in an analysis Monday that Washington’s policy change is not a “game changer,” especially if it includes a limit on where Ukraine can move. Use ATACMS.

“The loosening of range limits for Ukraine’s use of U.S. ATACMS follows the general pattern of America’s approach to this war: ensuring that Ukraine does not inflict significant damage on Russia… but allowing small increases in the procurement of equipment and their use over extended periods of time.” “If it is true that the use authorization covers only the Kursk region (and is therefore primarily directed at North Korean troops), then this again fits the pattern and means that the overall effects on the war would be negligible,” he said.

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