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Pentagon: Ukraine may launch US missiles at Russia whenever it is attacked

2024-06-21 20:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Pentagon: Ukraine may launch US missiles at Russia whenever it is attacked
US ATACMS missiles being fired during a South Korean military exercise in 2017

Ukraine's military is allowed to use US long-range missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russia, not just near the front lines near Kharkiv, if it does so in self-defense, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Initially, US President Joe Biden weeks ago gave Ukraine permission to use US-supplied munitions to defend the eastern city of Kharkiv from unprovoked Russian missile attacks.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States has maintained that Kiev would not use American weapons to strike targets inside Russia, fearing that would escalate the war.

READ ALSO: The US will send to Ukraine anti-aircraft missiles planned for other allied countries
Russia is striking Ukrainian targets from inside its borders, treating its territory as a "security zone", it said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary.

"While we are seeing those forces conducting such operations from their territory, we have explained that Ukraine can and has the right to respond in order to defend itself," Ryder told reporters.

The Pentagon said this is not a new position in its weapons policy.

"This is not about geography. It's about logic. If Russia is attacking or is trying to attack Ukraine from its own territory, then it makes sense to allow Ukraine to respond against the forces that are attacking it from across the border," he said.

READ ALSO: Several dead from Russian attacks in Ukraine
A day earlier, on Thursday, the White House said it would speed up the supply of air defense missiles to Ukraine by sending it to scheduled deliveries to other allied countries.

The decision means that shipments of "missiles coming off the production line" will go to Ukraine, instead of going to other planned countries./REL





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