A senior Ukrainian official hinted Monday that, despite Kremlin threats, Kyiv may have already begun using Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia.

Ukraine finally has a green light to strike inside Russia using U.S. weapons — and it may have begun doing so.

A senior Ukrainian official hinted Monday that Kyiv had hit a missile system inside Russia using Western weapons, just days after many of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, approved their limited use.

That followed months of pressure to ignore threats from the Kremlin and lift the restrictions, which Ukraine said had hampered its defensive effort. Even as President Vladimir Putin’s officials repeated their dire warnings, Ukraine signaled that it may have fired its first shots in this new reality, leaving observers to question what it could mean for the wider war.

  • unn@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Didn’t Russia say they would nuke Ukraine if they ever attack Russia?

    • [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      Nuke Ukraine, the US, France, the UK, uhhhhhh Poland, the Netherlands, Finland, Madagascar but only the parts with coffee bean eating lemurs… the list of countries they haven’t suggested nuking is shorter.

    • morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Considering they declared all annexed parts of Ukraine being officially part of Russia, the Ukrainian army have been bombing Russia for a while now anyway

    • tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      The problem is distinguishing between:

      • Russian state media bullshitting about nukes for the benefit of the Russian public.

      • Russian government officials like Medvedev bullshitting about nukes for the benefit of the Russian public.

      • Putin bullshitting about nukes for domestic benefit but not actually taking military moves that would suggest to other countries that he actually intends to go ahead.

      • The Kremlin bullshitting about nukes to try to influence foreign publics, but not governments, again without corresponding military moves.

      • The Kremlin bullshitting about nukes while intending to bluff other countries.

      • The Kremlin actually being serious about having a nuclear war.

      I don’t think that either of the last two have actually happened, or if they have, it’s been done privately (or in nuclear posture documents or the like).

    • mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 months ago

      I seem to recall they said they would nuke the uk with a nuclear tsunami or some other weird fever dream that just means they need to share whatever they’re smoking over there.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A senior Ukrainian official hinted Monday that Kyiv had hit a missile system inside Russia using Western weapons, just days after many of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, approved their limited use.

    A now-deleted post Monday on the Telegram messaging app from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk showed a photo of what appears to be a burning military truck.

    The Institute for the Study of War also suggested in its daily report Monday that “Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast," most likely with a high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) on Saturday or Sunday.

    There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to Vereshchuk’s claim, but Putin warned last week that European NATO states were playing with fire and risking “global conflict” by allowing Ukraine to strike inside Russia.

    “Ukraine is bound to show they can now do this and that S-300 is a legitimate military target,” Michael Clarke, visiting professor of war studies at King’s College London, told NBC News.

    National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday the administration would hold “talks” with Kyiv about further loosening the restrictions, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested the shift in U.S. policy was still not enough.


    The original article contains 728 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!