Biden tip-toes deeper into Ukraine conflict with arms decision

Reuters :
President Joe Biden’s decision to relax some restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US weaponry inside Russia is a small but significant step deeper into the two-year-old war that experts say could help blunt Russia’s cross-border Kharkiv offensive.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Biden’s administration had argued it was too risky to allow Ukraine to strike targets on Russia territory with US-supplied weapons. It feared a major Ukrainian attack could trigger direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
It was a rule that fit neatly with other US prohibitions on supplying higher-end weaponry to Kyiv that have also since crumbled, from advanced US fighter jets to long-range ATACM missiles.
Biden administration officials say the latest decision, which went into effect on Thursday, was
narrowly tailored to the battle in the Kharkiv region. US officials say it allows Kyiv to use US-supplied weapons to fire back against Russian forces “attacking them or preparing to attack them” from across the border.
That gives Ukrainians on the frontlines a green light to fire over the border at Russian forces using US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers armed with Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles, and other weaponry, experts say.
“This can stabilize the frontline and possibly create conditions to push back (Russians) from Kharkiv region before they have dug in,” said Mykola Bielieskov, research fellow at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies, an official think-tank in Kyiv.
Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer, said Biden’s decision will reduce Kyiv’s need to draw troops away from critical battle fronts in the eastern Donbas region.
“The Russians are now going to find themselves on the back foot and will have to rethink the tactics they have been using in their attack into Kharkiv,” he said.