The White House announced the move just hours after plans for talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin fell through – Ukraine will now be able to use long-range missiles provided by allies
The Trump administration has cleared the way for Ukraine to use certain long-range missiles supplied by Western allies.
A key restriction on their use has been lifted, allowing Kyiv to strike deep inside Russia and pile pressure on the Kremlin, US officials said on Wednesday.
Ukraine fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles on Tuesday at a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on social media, calling it a “successful hit”.
Ukraine’s military said the Russian plant “produces gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel components used in ammunition and missiles employed by the enemy to shell the territory of Ukraine”.
The strike came after an unannounced US move shifted approval for such attacks from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to America’s top general in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO commander, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The attack using UK-made missiles also came on the same day that PM Keir Starmer and other European leaders vowed to “ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defence industry” until Putin “is ready to make peace”.
It comes as face-to-face talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin recently fell through, with Trump saying on Tuesday he did not want “to have a wasted meeting” with Putin.
Trump has been pushing Putin – whom he last met in Alaska in August – to hold talks to end the war since early October. Just 10 days ago, aboard Air Force One en route to Israel, the US president warned: “I might say, ’Look: if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them (Ukraine) Tomahawks.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging Trump for stronger military support, especially US-made Tomahawk missiles, which have a maximum range of 1,550 miles.
But Trump has since backed off his proposal to provide Ukraine with Tomahawks, which would be viewed by the Kremlin as a major provocation. Moscow warned in September that if the US helped Ukraine launch Tomahawks, it could be seen as directly entering the war.
The Storm Shadow, a British-French cruise missile, can be launched from Ukrainian aircraft and travel over 180 miles. The US can restrict Ukraine’s use of the missile because it relies on American targeting data.
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