Biden approves Ukraine to hit Russia with long-range US missiles, Kremlin calls move ‘reckless’

Major US policy shift – long demanded by Ukraine – comes as North Korea deploys troops to help Moscow’s war effort

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The remains of a downed Russian Zircon hypersonic missile, after it struck a five-storey residential building in Kyiv on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:26am, 18 Nov 2024Updated: 3:27pm, 19 Nov 2024

The Kremlin warned on Monday that President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war and would escalate international tensions even higher.

Biden’s shift in policy added an uncertain, new factor to the conflict on the eve of the 1,000-day milestone since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.

It also came as a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine, killing 11 people and injuring 84 others. Another missile barrage sparked fires in a block of flats in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.

Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with its American-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, US officials told Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating the conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and Nato.

The Kremlin was swift in its condemnation.