US president authorizes Ukraine to strike Russia with US weapons

US President Joe Biden on Friday authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to counter Russian attacks in Kharkiv.
Germany followed soon after, saying it too had given Ukraine permission to fire the weapons it had delivered at targets in Russia.
The decisions by Washington and Berlin came days after Canada and Finland allowed Ukraine to use its weapons to attack Russia. More than a dozen Western countries have granted similar authorization.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday welcomed the U.S. decision to partially lift restrictions on the use of U.S.-donated weapons to strike Russia, calling it a “step forward.”
“This is a step forward towards the goal (…) of enabling the defense of our people who live in border villages,” Zelensky said during a visit to Stockholm where he participated in the third Nordic summit -Ukrainian.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has justified his country's decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with German weapons, describing it as a “strategic adaptation to a changing situation.”
Russian officials have proclaimed all week that NATO countries risk escalation if they grant Ukraine greater freedom to fire on Russia.
Russia's top security official, Dmitry Medvedev, said Friday that Russia was not bluffing when it raised the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine and warned that conflict between Moscow and the West could degenerate into total war.