This comes in the wake of reports that Biden had lifted the ban on the use of U.S.-supplied weapons, such as the ATACMS, a move that was previously avoided due to concerns of escalating the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
According to Newsweek, these long-range weapons could potentially be employed against the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Kursk region. This is the same region where Kyiv launched an incursion in August. As of Monday morning, the White House had not confirmed these reports. However, the Russian state news agency, Tass, hinted that the implications of Biden's alleged decision might be short-lived.
A source, described as a representative of Trump's transition team, was quoted by Tass saying, "I suspect that almost everything will be revised." The source further emphasized that "The United States has only one president at any given time. Until noon on January 20, 2025, this president is Joe Biden." They added that the decision to use these missiles was Biden's, but a new U.S. president would soon take office.
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U.S. officials, as cited by Newsweek, expressed skepticism that Biden's reported decision could significantly alter the course of the war. However, they noted that the decision might have been influenced by the deployment of North Korean troops to fight in Kursk. John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' (FDD), a Washington, D.C., think tank, welcomed this step, calling it "long overdue."
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Hardie suggested that the weapons could be used to target Russian and North Korean troops, command-and-control sites, and logistics nodes in the Kursk region. He further stated, "Enabling Ukraine to strike high-priority targets throughout Russia could put Kyiv in a better position for potential negotiations, including by incentivizing Moscow to agree to a moratorium on strikes on critical energy infrastructure."
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While U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer has not confirmed the report, he did indicate that Washington "would respond" to the deployment of North Korean forces in Kursk. He added that "the fire was lit by Russia's invasion of Ukraine." This statement likely refers to remarks by Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who warned that if confirmed, the U.S. decision was "fueling the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions." Peskov also suggested that this decision marked "a new situation from the point of view of the U.S.'s engagement in the conflict."
