Biden allows Ukraine to fire US weapons on parts of Russia

Nick Schifrin:

Over the past two years, President Biden has had two goals in Ukraine, not necessarily complementary: the first is to try to prevent Russia from taking over Ukraine and thus sending weapons and American money in Ukraine.

The second is to avoid a direct confrontation between the United States and Russia, which led him to restrict the use of these American weapons so that Ukraine could not fire them at Russia. But in recent weeks, some 30,000 Russian troops gathered at the border have shelled Ukrainian towns like this one in Kharkiv district and seized 12 villages around the buffer zone. Or what Russia is trying to create is a buffer zone.

They also bombed the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. Despite the fact that Ukrainians were watching Russian troops gather right on the border and launch this attack that everyone knew was coming.

And yet Ukraine could not use these weapons to try to prevent it. So, a U.S. official confirms this evening, quote, that the president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S.-supplied weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region so that Ukraine could retaliate.

The Kharkiv region is part of this declaration. A U.S. official who spoke to me about it added that our policy on prohibiting long-range strikes on Russia has not changed.