Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use US long-range missiles in the Russian region of Kursk.
Ukraine launched an operation into Kursk earlier this year.
Anonymous U.S. officials have said that President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by the United States to strike targets in the Russian region of Kursk, which is currently occupied by Ukraine in the ongoing war.
Ukrainian forces launched a significant cross-border operation into Russia’s region of Kursk earlier this year. Intense fighting is ongoing as Russian forces attempt to reclaim lost territory. Ukraine seized several settlements and is still holding strategic positions. In response, Russia has allowed 11,000 North Korean soldiers to amass in Kursk to aid its fight.
Last year, after North Korea supplied Russia with long-range ballistic missiles, the Biden administration responded by greenlighting Ukraine’s use of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System—with a range of about 190 miles—for targets within its territories, including in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The latest decision to allow Ukraine to expand its use of U.S. missiles comes in Biden’s last two months in office. According to the unnamed officials who talked to The New York Times, while the missiles are intended to support Ukraine’s fight in Kursk, Biden could authorize their use elsewhere in Russia.
Vladimir Putin revised nuclear doctrine that lowers the threshold for nukes to be used in self-defense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine on Tuesday stating that any attack on Russia supported by a country with nuclear power could be grounds for a nuclear response.
Putin signed the new policy on the 1,000th day of the war with Ukraine and the day after President Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
The doctrine also states that Russia could respond to aggression against its ally Belarus with nuclear weapons, The Associated Press reported.
Though the doctrine doesn’t specify that Russia will definitely respond to such attacks with nuclear weapons, it does mention the “uncertainty of scale, time and place of possible use of nuclear deterrent” as key principles of deterrence.
