BIDEN CLEARS UKRAINE TO STRIKE INSIDE RUSSIA WITH LONG-RANGE MISSILES
US President Joe Biden has cleared Kyiv to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on Sunday, hours after Russia targeted Ukraineās power grid in a deadly barrage.
According to AFP, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorisation from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was confirming reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post that the major policy shift ā long demanded by Ukraine ā was in response to North Korea deploying troops to help Moscowās war effort.
Poland was among the first to welcome the development.
āWith the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sundayās) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V.Putin understands,ā Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.
āThe victim of aggression has the right to defend himself,ā he added.
Ā Power cuts
News of Bidenās decision came hours after Ukraine announced nationwide emergency power restrictions from Monday after Russiaās massive attack, which killed 19 civilians and further damaged the countryās already fragile energy grid.
The latest deaths, including one child, came in a strike Sunday evening in the northeast town of Sumy.
State power company Ukrenergo announced the power cuts on Sunday, with Ukraineās much-feared winter approaching.
Russiaās latest barrage brought swift international condemnation.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the attack, which his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement had targeted āenergy and critical civilian infrastructureā.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen described the attack on the power grid as āhorribleā in comments to Brazilās Globo News.
āWe will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes,ā she added. āUkraine can count on us.ā
Ā Winter fears
Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting Kyiv as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.
The attack, which officials said was one of Russiaās largest, came as Moscowās assault neared its 1,000th day, which will be marked at the United Nations on Monday, attended by Ukraineās Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.
Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.
Bidenās announcement ā and the latest devastation ā came at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraineās east. The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House has raised fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.
Many fear a third winter of war will be the toughest yet. Previous Russian attacks have already destroyed half of Ukraineās energy production capacity, Zelensky has warned.
Ā āPeace through strengthā
Sundayās barrage came two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, urging the Kremlin chief to end Moscowās devastating offensive.
Ukraine was quick to criticise Berlinās initiative as āattempt at appeasementā. On Sunday, it said the latest attack was the Kremlinās real answer.
āThis is war criminal Putinās true response to all those who called and visited him recently,ā Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.
āWe need peace through strength, not appeasement.ā
Scholz on Sunday defended the call, insisting that Berlinās backing for Kyiv was unwavering.
āUkraine can count on us,ā he said before flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, adding that āNo decision will be taken behind Ukraineās back.ā
But Polandās Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the backlash on Sunday.
āNo one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine,ā Tusk wrote on X.
And French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking from the Mercosur summit in Argentina, said Putin ādoes not want peaceā in Ukraine and āis not ready to negotiateā an end to the war.
āItās a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to,ā said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. āI have no plans to speak to Putin.ā
He added that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces showed Moscowās ādesperationā, but also had āserious implications for European securityā.
Ā Civilian deaths across Ukraine
Moscow said it had hit all its targets, saying it had aimed for an āessential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complexā.
But civilian deaths were reported across the country from the strikes overnight Saturday to Sunday.
In one strike, a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in the village of Sheptytsky, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Polish border, said the head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky.
That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response, which it does whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory.
Russia said Ukrainian drones attacks had killed a man in its border Belgorod region and a woman ā named as local journalist Yulia Kuznetsova ā in the border Kursk region.
Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said she had been reporting on the āsituation in the regionā, where a Ukrainian incursion has displaced thousands of people.
The West and Ukraine says thousands of North Korea soldiers are in Russia, with some in the Kursk region, to reinforce Moscowās forces.
AFP