WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden’s administration will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a significant change to Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

The move by the United States two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine’s military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.

The change follows Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv.

The first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.

    • ouch@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Bad news mate. WW3 already started a while ago. The world is essentially in a proxy war against Russia.

      • DictatrshipOfTheseus@lemmy.ml
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        20 hours ago

        If you include the global south (which obviously you should), most of the world sides with Russia. I’d agree with you that unless things really take a turn towards deescalation, which is laughably unlikely, history will look back at this time as WWIII having already begun. But it’s a lot more complicated than just a proxy war against Russia. It’s a proxy war the Western Imperialists via NATO but under the hegemonic control of the US in particular, is waging against the rising challengers of that hegemony. And primary among those is China, which is why we have the constant and unrelenting sinophobia and anti-China propaganda. It’s just that Russia has just been the first and boldest to actually use military force against the encroachment of western imperialist ambitions, but Iran is being forced into taking action now too. Also Hezbollah and Anserallah of course, but I mean among those that are fully recognized as state actors.

        But no, if this does shape up to truly be WWIII, then the line is not between Russia and the world. The lines are between Western Imperialists and Multipolarists.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            49 minutes ago

            I went over this last month https://lemmy.ml/post/21682024/14466154

            Sure, but that vote hasn’t actually done anything, and countries continue to trade with Russia. And the Global South countries haven’t curtailed their relations with Russia one whit. In fact some are building even deeper ties with Russia. They’re building an alternative system to SWIFT, they’re trading in each others’ currencies to avoid the dollar, and they’re making plans for some kind of BANCOR-like currency. The BRICS summit is happening right now, hosted by Russia.

            Not only that, but Global North countries are skirting their own sanctions to trade with Russia on the sly.

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              18 minutes ago

              So then the global north also supports Russia? Of course not.

              You’ve only proven that nobody has strong principles at all, here.

              • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                4 minutes ago

                You’ve only proven that nobody has strong principles at all, here.

                By saying “only,” you’re implying that these facts don’t matter, when they clearly do matter. This is the real, material world, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Facts on the ground don’t care about your principals.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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            4 hours ago

            That’s the whole problem with trying to break down geopolitics into set polarized factions. It makes annotating history a bit easier, but it completely forgoes any nuance.

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              16 minutes ago

              I think a lot of people on Lemmy do it for emotional reasons, too. They can’t handle a grey-on-grey world, they need it to be black and white.