US still does not encourage strikes on Russian soil but it’s Ukraine that decides, – Blinken

US State Secretary Antony Blinken. Photo: ukrinform.net

The US government changes its stance on Ukraine hitting targets inside Russia, saying Ukraine is to decide on how to wage the war for its territories.

“We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, and ultimately, Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war, a war it’s conducting in defense of its freedom, of its sovereignty, of its territorial integrity,” the US Secretary of State stressed.

He added that the US keeps being committed to helping ensure Ukraine winning this war and that his state has shown that through the “extraordinary support” it has already provided.

POLITICO reports that some Ukrainian parliamentarians in Washingtonare trying to persuade Biden administration to greenlight strikes with US-made weapons over the border as Russia is trying to advance in the Kharkiv oblast.

“We saw their military sitting one or two kilometers from the border inside Russia and there was nothing we could do about that,” Oleksandra Ustinova, the head of Ukraine’s special parliamentary commission on arms and munitions, commented on the current situation.

Previously, the ISW concluded that US should allow Ukraine to strike legitimate military targets in Russia’s rear with US-provided weapons as Russia benefits from the US limitations on Ukraine’s use of HIMARS, ATACMS and Patriots and assembles forces in the area for the current attacks on Kharkiv and the Kharkiv oblast.